The Case of the Soul Society
by KairiGokuJr
Summary: An imbalance of souls in the Soul Society and Spirit World starts to have a bad effect on the Living World. Soon it becomes apparent that this was no accident: someone is out for revenge. Old villains return, things turn bleak for Team Spirit Detective, and a man they know only from stories appears and he is hiding something. Lemons! Bleach/YYH/DBZ Sequel to Chapter Black
1. Just a Kiss Goodnight

_[A/N: Huzzah huzzah for the new series has arrived. I hope you enjoy it as I put in a crapton of hard work for it. It will contain one or two lemons and as always feedback is always appreciated. I'll probably post this series really quickly just because I know a few of you have never seen Bleach. And I've got plans for the Three Kings arc I'm eager to flesh out. Sorry it took so long to post, but there were some large plot changes I made that I needed to fix before I got it up. Enjoy! Don't forget to review! I'll probably update this every Friday!]_

_[Special credit to my brother, __**XxJrHazardxX**__, for his help developing the plot. He is my walking, talking Bleach encyclopedia.]_

_**Chapter One: Just a Kiss Goodnight**_

It happened two weeks after the first time I had dinner with Ichigo and his family and I was genuinely confused about the whole situation.

"You are the most overdramatic person I have ever met, which is saying a lot because you know how Kuwabara can get," Keiko told me.

I had wasted no time in trekking to her house after the incident, unsure of how to deal with the situation at hand and definitely not wanting Yusuke's input.

"I am not being dramatic, Keiko. You know these things don't happen to me," I said.

"Maybe it was an accident," Keiko said.

"Nope. Impossible. Ichigo is over half a foot taller than me," I said. "It was intentional."

The incident in question had occurred after another visit to his house after school in which Yuzu had again, like she had many times before coerced me into staying for dinner. Afterward, Ichigo had walked me outside like he always did because he was polite that way and as I was saying goodbye I gave him a hug, like I did occasionally because that's just the way things went. But then, I had just barely pulled away from him and he leaned down and kissed my cheek.

I froze, but Ichigo let go of me and said goodbye before walking back into his house casually as if it hadn't happened, leaving me standing outside his door in a mild state of confusion.

"Okay, so he likes you. He sounds like he's nice," Keiko said.

"Maybe he had a brief moment of insanity," I thought aloud.

"Stop being stupid," she said, whacking me on the top of my head with a pen. "He sounds nice the way you talk about him."

"He is. He's really nice. And he's smart and he's attractive, but Keiko, I am me," I said.

She shook her head. "I don't understand. Why is it bad if he likes you?"

"I am neurotic and crazy and sometimes a bad person. And he is very obviously too good for me," I said. "The last boy that liked me that was too good for me currently hates my guts."

"Well that's because you were stupid about how you handled things with Hiei," Keiko said.

"And then there's that asshole!" I said. Hiei was currently one of my least favorite people, once again. He'd been the next morning after I woke up and didn't reappear again that weekend, or any day afterward. I'd remained hopeful for a few that he'd show back up, but it soon became apparent that he'd found his answer the obvious question, and the answer was no.

Still, I had a soft spot for that asshole, and that worried me. "What if he just shows back up?"

"If he hadn't run off we wouldn't even be having this conversation about this Ichigo boy would we?" Keiko said. I shook my head. "Right because you told him you weren't going to wait around for eternity for him. And now there's a new boy who's not a jerk who actually likes you and you have a problem with this because why. . .?"

"Because-."

"Because you're being difficult, Kairi. You like him. I know you do because otherwise it wouldn't bother you so much," she said. I frowned. "Put on your big girl pants and stop being in so much denial when you like someone. It will make your life easier."

My phone buzzed on her desk and she picked it up, examining the screen. "Who is it?"

"Ichigo," she said clicking away on the keys.

"What'd he want? What are you saying?" I asked.

"He asked what you were doing tomorrow. I told him nothing," she said.

"Actually, I was going to go home and visit my parents tomorrow," I said lunging for my phone.

"Your mom won't mind if you blow her off to hang out with a boy whose dad is a doctor," she said, pulling it away from me.

That was logic I couldn't argue with.

My phone buzzed again.

"What'd he say?" I asked.

"He wants to know if you want to go to the zoo tomorrow," she giggled. "Why the zoo?" My phone buzzed again. "Now he said he's taking the twins and Yuzu wants you to join them. Who's Yuzu?"

"Karin and Yuzu are his younger sisters. They're 11. Karin is a tough cookie, but Yuzu is precious. I debate kidnapping her and taking her home to be my little sister every day," I said.

"So, you're going to the zoo tomorrow," she said. I frowned at her. "Come on. The zoo is fun and his sisters are practically old enough to watch themselves. This is totally just a ploy to get you in a new environment. Like a test run date."

"How do you know these things? Isn't Yusuke your only boyfriend? Should I really be taking advice from you?" I asked.

"I have your cell phone in my hand and the power to send some very unsavory text messages to your entire phone book. Now is not the time to question me," she said.

"I don't know how you allowed Yusuke to corrupt you, but I don't like it," I said.

Keiko smiled at me. "Tomorrow night you'll be thanking me."

888

As much as I wanted Keiko to be wrong, she had been right. Ichigo was still very chill about everything. He was mostly disinterested in the animals at the zoo (as was Karin) as Yuzu dragged us around the whole place. Mostly Yuzu kept her observations to Karin unless there was something she was really excited about (she was a fan of big cats).

So as Keiko had predicted, Ichigo spent the majority of his time in conversation with me and despite the fact that it was chilly that day and I didn't care much for the zoo I actually enjoyed myself.

I didn't take much convincing to hang out with him, sans the twins, the next day, and the rest, as they say is history.

A whole month had passed since then and dating Ichigo wasn't nearly the struggle I had thought it was going to be. In fact, all things considered, it was the best thing that had happened in a really long time.

And yet there was something amiss. And we could all tell.

The tunnel was closed. The SDF had vacated Karakura Town, we hadn't heard a peep from Sprit World or the Soul Society as far as any trouble went, but it became obvious as the weeks went on that something wasn't settled. With the tunnel having opened, flooding the already unusual Karakura Town with energy, the number of hollows had increased and Ichigo and his friends were kept busy all of the time. By now the energy from the tunnel was beginning to taper off, but the amount of Hollows was still steadily rising.

Which wasn't the only issue.

"If I, the least spiritually aware of the group, can see ghosts around, I know something's up," I said.

We were all in Kuwabara's room one Tuesday afternoon discussing the state of weirdness going around. At the best of times I could sense when there were ghosts around. It wasn't that unusual, especially being in Karakura Town all the time. What made it unusual was that I could actually see them, which wasn't normal, even for someone who was as spiritually aware as Kuwabara.

"Something is deepening their connection with the Living World. That's unusual," Kurama said.

"Even Keiko can sense that something's up and she's got no awareness at all," Yusuke said. "And tell 'em what you saw Kuwabara."

Kuwabara nodded. "There were these really weird ghosts I saw, walking around with these chains attached to their chests."

"Right in the center?" I asked. Kuwabara gave me a nod. "Those are pluses. We're not even in tune enough with the Soul Society to see pluses. The only reason we can even spot the Hollows is because they give off so much Spirit Energy, but you just see them walking around?"

Kuwabara nodded.

"That's fucking weird," I said. "Although. . . Ichigo has been dealing with a lot more Hollows recently. It's getting pretty bad."

"That can't be a coincidence," Kurama said.

"I'm starting to think you're right," I said. "But what would cause all of this?"

Yusuke scoffed. "You got me."

"You don't think something's really wrong do you?" Kuwabara asked.

"I don't know. It's not like we can count on Spirit World to tell us if there is, but since this problem is obviously affecting the Soul Society as well if something was wrong they'd alert Ichigo, but I haven't seen any other Soul Reapers around but him, and the one they stationed here," I said. "But they can be unreliable with information too."

"So we just wait and hope nothing bad happens?" Yusuke asked.

I shrugged. "We're not the Spirit Detectives anymore. It's not our job to make sure nothing bad happens. We're just preprogrammed to care."

"Damn, I didn't think getting rid of that job was going to suck this much," Yusuke said.

"Yeah. I'm starting to get that feeling too," I said. "I was distracted from it before."

"By what?" Yusuke asked.

"Hm?"

"Well, since the whole thing with Sensui happened we've barely seen you, but you've kept busy and you're not in emotional distress like we all thought you'd be," Yusuke said.

"You were pretty messed up about quitting afterward and then you seemed fine," Kuwabara said.

"It's probably because of your stupid boyfriend, right?" Yusuke said.

"He's not stupid, jerk. He's actually way smarter than me," I said.

"Not a difficult task to accomplish, to be fair," Kurama said.

"Fuck off," I said.

"But Kairi is right. He does rank 23rd in her year," Kurama said.

"You've been blowing us off to hang out with your boyfriend _and_ he's a nerd?" Yusuke asked.

"I'm sorry, isn't your girlfriend second in your class?" I asked.

"Don't bring Keiko into this. She is not a nerd," Yusuke said.

"By what logic is your girlfriend not a nerd, but Ichigo is?" I asked.

"By my logic, because Keiko is perfect and I have yet to meet this Ichigo," Yusuke said.

"I told you that you have met him before," I said.

"And I told you I can't remember the face of every ginger kid I beat up, Kairi," Yusuke said. "I think you don't want us to meet him because you're ashamed of us."

"I absolutely am ashamed of you," I said.

"What the hell!" Kuwabara scolded me.

"I don't want you guys to scare him off," I said. "He's good people."

"And we aren't good people?" Yusuke asked.

"Kairi isn't even good people. Who knows what he sees in her," Kurama said.

"Thank you for your kind words," I said.

"Well, I'm still irritated that you don't think we're important now that you've got yourself a boyfriend. I still make time for you even though I've got Keiko," Yusuke said. "Bros before hoes, Kairi. Remember that."

"I'm sorry. I will introduce you soon. It looks like I might not have a choice about it anyway," I said.

"Yes, with the state of things, I'd say that it was bound to happen eventually," Kurama said. "In the meantime, Kairi, you should speak to Ichigo about what's been happening and have him inquire into the Soul Society about it to be safe."

"Will do," I said.

"We should have him come over this weekend," Yusuke said.

"Can't. Bulma is having her little shindig remember?" I asked.

"Oh, that's right. I still don't know how you roped us into that one," Kuwabara said.

Bulma was having a party this weekend at the Capsule Corp. compound. All her and my dad's old friends were going to be there—Krillin, Tien, Yamcha, Master Roshi, the list goes on. She insisted that since my friends had now joined the ranks of saving the world from destruction they all had to come.

"I'm only going because Bulma's a total MILF," Yusuke said.

"Please stop calling her that," I said.

"Hey! As a matter of fact, you should bring the ol' boy around," Yusuke said. "And Orihime and the rest of your little buddies in Karakura Town so we can meet them. And judge them."

". . . I'm not so sure about the judging, but it doesn't sound like a bad idea to be honest. Think of it as a networking opportunity," Kurama said.

"The last thing I need to do is introduce Ichigo to you and my parents and my brothers and the rest of my very weird close family friends all in one go. He will head for the hills," I said.

"Then he doesn't deserve you," Yusuke said.

"That's very sweet, Yusuke, but I actually really like Ichigo and he's not a piece of shit so I'd be pleased if this worked out," I said.

"We'll be on our best behavior," Yusuke said.

"That doesn't inspire much confidence," I said. "But I'm afraid of what drastic measures you might go to if I don't invite them."

"Yep, shit was gone get cray," Yusuke said.

"Don't talk like that," Kurama said shaking his head.

Kuwabara's bedroom door opened and Shizuru leaned inside.

"Hate to break up the party, Kazuma, but we've got visitors," she said.

"Who?" he asked.

"Come find out. All of you."

We walked down the hall to the front room of Kuwabara's house and, lo, standing there were Genkai and Yukina.

"Yukina!" Kuwabara cheered as he floated off to her and took her into a hug.

"Hello, Kazuma," Yukina said as he released her. "How are all of you doing?"

"Great," I said. "But what are you guys doing here?"

"Yukina was getting a little stir crazy living the life of a hermit, so I decided to leave her with you folks for a while," Genkai said.

"All right!" Kuwabara cheered.

"Honestly though, we're not really that entertaining when we're not beating people up," Yusuke said.

"Not to mention we're in school all the time. Well, at least I am," I said. "Though that has a lot to do with a certain relative of mine threatening violence on me if I don't go."

"Well, surprise. She's going to school too," Genkai said.

"Really? How did you manage that?" Kurama asked as Yukina dug into the purse on her shoulder. She pulled out a tiny pink wallet and hand it to Kurama. He opened it and examined the ID she had inside. He chuckled. "Look, Kairi."

I leaned over and had a glance at it. Then I looked up at Genkai.

"You had Grandpa make her a fake ID?" I asked.

"What's the point of having your brother be ruler of an entire city if you can't fake an apparition's way into humanity every once in a while," Genkai said casually.

"Wait, your grandpa rules an entire city?" Yusuke asked.

"Fire Mountain Village," Kurama and I said unison.

"That's all the way out in the boonies," Yusuke said. "Is there any part of your family that's actually from civilization?"

"No, we're all wild," I said.

"But anyway, Yukina, welcome to West City. Sariyaski High sucks by the way, but they'll probably love you there."

"She's not going to your school," Genkai said.

"Aww, why not?" Kuwabara whined.

"Because, they wouldn't let her in," Genkai said.

"They said I did fine on the placement test, but when they saw my recommendation letter was from Kairi's grandpa they said they weren't ever going to let anyone in there under the recommendation from anyone in her family on principle," Yukina said.

I sighed. "I left my mark good on that school."

"So you're going to Karakura high instead I assume?" Kurama asked. Yukina nodded.

"They placed me into class 2A," she said.

"Yay! We're classmates!" I said.

"Good. Maybe you'll be able to get some sense into her head. Lord knows how she passed ninth grade," Kurama said.

"Trunks," I said.

Kurama sighed.

"But I'm doing better now, especially since Orihime decided to sit me down that one day at lunch and tell me I was stupid," I said.

"Orihime told you that you were stupid?" Yusuke asked.

"What she said was 'It's a good thing you're pretty because you're not bright' and then I got back a math test that wasn't graded except for the giant red question mark my teacher put on the front of the test. And then I thought there might be some merit to what she said," I said. "And anyway, I'm only bad at math and science. I'm doing fine in history and English and PE and art. They even hung up the picture I drew in the hallway."

"Well, I'm actually really good at math. Maybe I could help you," Yukina suggested.

"Maybe. Ichigo keeps trying to help me, but one of these days I think I'm just going to end up making him cry," I said.

"I thought Uryu was your tutor?" Kurama asked.

"He was until he flipped that desk over in a fit of rage and the principal got involved," I said.

"Oh, right, and then he wrote 'moron' on your forehead in dry erase marker," Kurama said.

". . . School sure does sound interesting," Yukina said.

"Trust me, it'd be worse of you were going with these bozos," I said motioning to Yusuke and Kuwabara. "And-."

I paused. I sensed something outside. I walked past Genkai and went to the front door. I open it and looked around. Everything was deserted and the presence I had sensed was gone.

"Everything okay?" Yusuke asked.

"Yeah, fine, it's just. . . Just now I got the feeling we were being watched," I said.

"By who?" Kuwabara asked.

"I don't know," I said.

"Do you think it's Hiei?" Yusuke asked.

"If it was Hiei we definitely wouldn't know about it," I said. "That's kind of what he does."

"All the weird shit happening and we end up with a stalker," Yusuke said. "Color me surprised."

"I'm a big girl, I can take care of whatever it is," I said. "Ain't no one fucks with a Super Saiyan. Ain't no one."


	2. Heard You're New In Town

_[A/N: Almost forgot to get this up today! But here is your second chapter! Don't forget to review!]_

_**Chapter Two: Heard You're New In Town**_

Kurama and I met Yukina at Kuwabara's house the next morning. It was a little bit strange seeing her in a school uniform with a book bag. She looked so human. You'd never guess that her tears made precious jewels or that she was perfectly capable turning an entire room into an ice box without a second thought about it.

Kuwabara was going nonstop, giving her advice about school and what to expect.

"And don't talk to any weird guys okay," Kuwabara said.

"How will I know if they're weird?" Yukina asked.

"Yeah, it's not like she's come across any examples of normal since she hangs around us," I said.

"Will you try saying something useful for once instead of being so sassy," Kuwabara said to me with a frown.

"Don't worry, I won't let anyone steal Yukina away from you," I said, placing my hands on Yukina's shoulders and pulling her back to me, and putting my arm around her. "All I've got to do is see to it that Keigo leaves her alone and after that things will be fine."

"You've forgotten about Chizuru," Kurama said.

"Ah, yes, Chizuru. Perhaps my greatest obstacle," I said with a nod.

"Who's Chizuru?" Kuwabara asked.

"She's a really sweet girl who isn't shy about how much she loves women. Usually she focuses all of her energy on Orihime. Sometimes someone will look really adorable and they'll hold her attention for a day. Occasionally she'll give me kudos on my boobs which I don't really mind, but we all find it best to not encourage her advances except or Orihime who usually just has no idea what's going on, bless her heart. But look at Yukina—she's tiny and pretty and new."

"Chizuru will come after her for sure," Kurama said shaking his head. "You should probably introduce Yukina to Tatsuki."

"Noted," I said.

"We should probably get going so you're not late for your first day," Kurama said.

Yukina nodded.

We finally managed to pull her away from Kuwabara and started our walk to Karakura Town.

"Were you thinking of walking with Ichigo this morning?" Kurama asked as we crossed the Onose River into the city.

"Yeah. Seemed like a good idea, just so Ichigo could meet her without us having to hide it from a bunch of idiots," I said.

"Who's Ichigo?" Yukina asked.

"Kairi's boyfriend," Kurama teased.

"He also happens to be a substitute Soul Reaper so you don't have to hide the fact that you're an apparition from him," I said.

"I didn't think Soul Reapers were real," Yukina said.

"Neither didn't Kairi until she found herself making out with one," Kurama said.

"You keep saying shit like that and you're gonna get punched," I said.

It wasn't long before we were on Ichigo's street and his house came into view. Standing outside of it were Keigo and Mizurio.

"Ugh. I forgot these two usually walk with him," I said.

"You know them?" Yukina asked.

"They're in our class. Mizurio is all right, but Keigo's kind of an idiot, harmless, but an idiot. Kind of like Yusuke, but not as much of an asshole," I said. "They're just regular humans so they're not in on anything."

Yukina nodded as we reached the two boys.

"Hello, boys," I said greeting them.

"What's up, Kairi," Mizurio said. "It's been a while since you've walked to school with us."

"I had to get up early this morning," I said tossing my arm around Yukina, preparing to begin the introduction.

"Whoa! Who is this goddess?" Keigo asked.

"So it begins," Kurama muttered. He then cleared his throat. "This is Yukina Tsukino. She's a family friend from the Fire Mountain Village."

"Whoa, you're almost from as far out in the boonies as Kairi is," Keigo teased.

"Except there are people where you're from," Mizurio added.

"Yes, let's all laugh at Kairi from Mount Paozu because she's so foreign. I'll have you know that both our mothers are from Fire Mountain _before_ it was village and just used to be a place surrounded by a fiery raging volcanic hellfire and my grandfather the Ox King was feared throughout the land," I said.

"It's true, they used to call him the Emperor of Demons," Yukina said.

Kurama smiled and gave her a nod, impressed with how much research she'd put into her back story.

"Is this supposed to impress me Kairi?" Keigo asked.

"It means I'll kick your ass if you keep talkin' shit," I said.

Keigo scoffed. "You'll undoubtedly find some other reason to whack me upside the head—you always do, and it's always for the same stuff I do every day."

"Well did you know that doing the same things over and over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity?" Yukina asked.

We all paused and looked at her for a moment. She was cute, new, _and_ brilliant. Poor thing didn't stand a chance once we got to school.

"See, Keigo. You're insane," I said.

Keigo turned his nose up at me. "I don't think I want to stand here and be called crazy by Ichigo's old ball and chain."

And then suddenly, a school bag nailed Keigo right in the face, knocking him to the ground.

"Don't call her that," Ichigo said picking his bag up from the ground.

"Hello, Ichigo. Glad you could finally join our discussion," Kurama said.

"Yeah, me too," Ichigo said. He then turned to Yukina. "I'm Ichigo. You must be Yukina. Kairi's mentioned you a few times. It's nice to finally meet you."

"Thank you. I look forward to getting to know you. All of you," Yukina said throwing a glance and a smile to Mizurio and Keigo.

"Well, I hope you survive Chizuru," Mizurio said as we started our walk.

Kurama pulled me aside and leaned down to whisper in my ear.

"What exactly does Ichigo know about Yukina?" Kurama asked.

"We rescued her from Tarukonae, she showed up looking for her brother at the tournament. That Kuwabara is madly in love with her," I said.

"And Hiei?" Kurama asked.

"Hiei may be at the top of my shit list right now, but a secret is a secret and I am still a loyal, if not somewhat, bitter ally," I said.

"Try not to murder him when he inevitably comes back," Kurama said.

I rolled my eyes. "No promises."

888

I left Yukina with Kurama when we arrived at school, as he would be delivering her to class just as he'd done for me. I went to homeroom with the boys and as soon as I opened the classroom door, Chizuru jumped onto my back.

"Kairi!" she cheered. "I totally had this dream about you last night!"

"Did you have to jump on me to tell me that?" I asked, abandoning the boys to walk over to my desk, the bespectacled redhead, still on my back.

"Yes! Well, no, but who cares," Chizuru said.

"I care a little bit," I said. "Do I even want to know what this dream was about?"

"Sure," she said. I sighed.

"Proceed then, and get off," I said.

"Just wait," she said patting me on the head. "So, in the dream we were all at school right, like usual, and suddenly this tiger attacks the classroom and everyone's totally freaking and as we're trying to escape the tiger jumps right in front of me and is like 'grr, I'm gone eat ya.'"

"Why was there a tiger in the classroom?" I asked.

"Why is the tiger talking, Kairi? Get some perspective," Chizuru said. "Anyway, I was sure I was going to be eaten and you jump out of nowhere and punch it in the face and save everyone."

"Yeah, I'd definitely punch a tiger in the face," I said. "Cool dream."

"Definitely, because then after you saved me you took your shirt off and-."

"Get off me, Chizuru," I said.

She giggled and hopped down from my back as we were joined by Tatsuki and Orihime.

"Why is it that every time I see you you're acting like a crazy person?" Tatsuki asked.

Tatsuki was Orihime's best friend and she'd known Ichigo since they were kids. She was very protective of Orihime and didn't like when people harassed her or bothered her (or when Chizuru continually made passes at her). She was very tough and very sassy and continually made fun of Ichigo for being a crybaby during childhood. She was in the kendo club and could kick ass. She was easily one of my favorite people here.

"Oh, I'm not crazy, Tatsuki. Why are you always so mean?" Chizuru said, pouting.

"Oh, stop. You know that won't work on me," Tatsuki said. "Anyway, is Uryu here yet?"

"Oh, no. He's down at the office because we're getting a new student today. He said that we didn't screen the last one properly," Chizuru said with a wink.

"Well, I know the new student. She's a good friend of mine and she she's an angel and if anyone gives her a hard time I will not be happy about it," I said. "I'll have a hard enough time keeping everyone from drooling all over her like a piece of meat."

"So she's cute, huh?" Chizuru asked.

"And she has a boyfriend, who happens to be one of my best friends," I said. "So you stay away from her."

"All right, but that means I just have to keep coming after you with increased aggression," Chizuru said.

"Fine. Just leave Yukina alone. She's from Fire Mountain Village where my mom's family is from so she's kind of a rube," I said.

"Well so are you Kairi, but we like you anyway," Orihime said.

"I am not a rube," I said.

"Is that why you were fascinated by a melon baller?" Tatsuki said. I frowned at her.

"We use spoons to ball our melons where I come from," I said.

"And you also eat dinosaur meat," Orihime said.

"Orihime Inoue, I know that you off all people are not criticizing me for the food I eat," I said.

"I don't understand. What's wrong with what I eat?" Orihime asked.

"Everything," Tatsuki said. "But it's part of your charm."

"Oh, so when she does it it's cute, but when I do it's weird and foreign," I said.

"Yes," Tatsuki said.

"All right kids, everyone in their seats," our homeroom teacher, Ms. Ochi announced.

We all settled down into our seats. I still sat by Suekichi in the back of the classroom. To my left there was an empty desk where Yukina would no doubt sit behind Ichigo. Orihime sat in front of me next to Tatsuki.

Uryu quickly scampered into the classroom and took his seat at the front of Ichigo's row. Kurama stood in the door way of the classroom obviously giving Yukina one final rundown before her first day of school and being forced to pretend to be human.

"Because our last new student has been_ such_ a success, our school has seen it fit to give us another new and rather foreign student," Ms. Ochi announced.

"I am not that foreign. I only live on the other side of the mountain from Satan City," I said.

"But you've got kind of a weird accent," Keigo said.

"I do not," I said.

"You only have it sometimes, like when you say words like breakfast," Keigo said. "You say it like 'breaktist.'"

And this prompted many of my closer classmates to breakout into a weirdly creepy chant of saying "breaktist" over and over again.

"Holy crap, stop," I said.

"Yes, we don't want to scare our new charge off before she's even got in the door," Ms. Ochi said. "Bring her in, Shuichi."

Kurama walked, Yukina in tow.

The response to Yukina was a lot different than the reception I got when I'd first arrived, but that was Yukina. She brought happiness and sunshine wherever she went and she had an air of innocence to herself as well. The fact that she was pretty certainly didn't help.

"Everyone, this is Yukina Tsukino. She's from the Fire Mountain Village in the south. She's been homeschooled up until now so please try not to give her a hard time," Kurama said.

Yukina bowed in that polite way she always did. "I look forward to getting to know all of you."

888

Thankfully, Yukina's first day of school had been relatively painless. Teenagers would behave like teenagers, obviously, but Yukina seemed to have learned to deal with that easily after spending all of her time with us at the Dark Tournament. There were little things—like never having seen a juice box before, and the fact that she was, by nature, slightly naïve, that made her seem odd, but overall, I barely needed to look after her.

People asked her a thousand and one questions about her boyfriend and she gushed, to their amazement, about how sweet Kuwabara was.

Kurama, Ichigo, and I were walking with her after school and couldn't stop talking about how wonderful it was. Kurama and I were going to walk to Keiko's house to visit after we left Ichigo, but there was a wrench thrown into our plans.

"Genkai says I should join a sports club," Yukina said.

"Really? You strike me as more a handy crafts club girl," Ichigo said.

"I'm in the handy crafts club," I said.

"Because Tatsuki threw you out the Kendo club after you had that fit," Ichigo said.

"Those Kendo sticks are fragile," I said.

"Especially when you can bench press a planet," Kurama said. I rolled my eyes.

"Genkai said sports will help bring out my competitive spirit," Yukina said. "Kendo sounds fun actually. I've been thinking a lot about learning to defend myself since the tournament. I don't want to hurt anyone, of course, but knowing how to do something might help."

"That is of course the best reason to take up martial arts," I said. "You sure you want kendo? There's a karate club too. I am obviously a big fan of the karate."

Yukina nodded. "I just was thinking about when Hiei came to save me from Tarukonae and saw him use his sword. It was really impressive. I just thought, it might be interesting to learn."

Kurama and I exchanged glances. This would definitely be fodder for the next time we needed to properly make Hiei feel uncomfortable.

Just as Ichigo was getting into explaining the basics of kendo to Yukina, I sensed it again. I stopped dead on my tracks and looked around. I couldn't see him, but I could sense him and he was close, just like yesterday night.

"What is it?" Ichigo asked.

"It's not that stalker is it?" Yukina asked.

"Stalker? Someone's been following you? Why didn't you tell me?" Ichigo asked.

"It's not a stalker per say, I just. . . I sense someone," I started to answer, but I was focusing on the energy. I'd found him. I could follow him. "I'm getting to the bottom of this right now."

"But wait," Ichigo started to protest.

"I'll be fine. Just go home," I said.

I was usually opposed to doing so, but in the middle of broad daylight, I took off for the roof tops and started flying off toward my pursuer. They were moving too, away from Karakura Town towards the highway near the woods where Sniper had tried to kill me.

And that's where they stopped.

I landed in the woods. I could feel them nearby.

"Come out. I know you're here. Why the hell are you following us?" I asked.

"You've got quite a mouth on you, kid," a rough, male voice called back.

"Are you from Spirit World?" I asked, walking to the voice.

"Naw, they've got better things to do than look after you right now," they said.

"Why are you following me?" I asked.

I could see their silhouette up ahead.

"Trouble's coming, kid. Ain't that the reason you meet most new people?" he aked.

I could just barely make them out now: they were tall, well-toned, and stood rather confidently, but there was something familiar about him. Their hair. I'd seen that hair a million times on my dad's head.

"Who are you?" I asked.

I was finally close enough to see him now. Tall, toned, tan, unkempt hair, a scar on his left cheek wearing Saiyan armor. He even had a tail. He looked so much like my dad that it made my head spin.

"Name's Bardock," he said.

My whole mouth went dry instantly. That was damn near the top of the list of things that were improbable.

". . . You're a liar," I said.

"Am I?" he asked.

"Bardock, my father's father, is dead and has been for decades," I said. "Frieza-."

"Got what he had coming to him, I heard. As for me," he shrugged, "I don't rightly know."

"I think you're just full of shit," I said. "Tell me who you really are."

"I bet you're awful confused about why you keep having all those crazy visions of the future you can't stop. The ones where you see people die or hurt and no matter how hard you try you can't stop them," he said.

A million little red flags in my head went up.

". . . You're supposed to be dead," I repeated.

"I know that and you know that, but here am, quite alive and part of you believes I'm telling the truth," he said. "Usually that gut of yours leads you in the right direction. So what about now?"

I stared at him for a moment and then I made a decision. I reached into my bag and pulled out my cellphone. There was only one person I could call for something like this.


	3. Now You're Back From Outer Space

_[A/N: Happy Sunday! This is a special extra update for you guys because my birthday was yesterday so I decided to give you a present! The only present you can give me for my birthday will be reviews!]_

_**Chapter Three: Now You're Back From Outer Space**_

"So you bring him here?!" Vegeta shouted at us. "Probably an imposter out to kill us all and you bring him here?!"

"Calm down, dad. He doesn't seem dangerous," Trunks said.

I was actually surprised when Trunks answered the phone when I called him. We still weren't on speaking terms. I'd stop by to visit Vegeta and Bulma and Trunks would just glare at me. When he came by my parents' house to hang out with Goten I was as good as invisible. I wasn't a big fan of his attitude, especially since I had apologized what seemed like a million times, but I didn't really have a choice but to contact him today. His dad was a Saiyan. His mom was a scientist. There were literally the only two people qualified to handle this situation.

"Yes, he's only been watching everyone from the shadows for who knows how long. Nothing about that strikes me as dangerous!" Vegeta shouted.

"If he's not telling the truth, then at least we've got him as a hostage to find out why," I said. "And if he is telling the truth-."

"He's telling the truth," Bulma said coming out of the lab. "He's definitely one of Kairi's paternal relatives. And I'm one hundred percent sure he's a Saiyan—and alive."

"Do you understand the ramifications of the words that just came out of your mouth, woman?!" Vegeta exclaimed.

"Well, the DNA doesn't lie, Vegeta!" Bulma scolded him.

"Hey," I chimed in. "Now that we've got this all settled. . . What are we supposed to tell my dad?"

"Then truth," Vegeta said.

"No one just takes news like that easily," Bulma said. "He doesn't even know that man in there, You should've seen what happened when he met Raditz."

"Well then we'll have someone with experience in meeting their dead parents tell him," Vegeta said. "Think of it as revenge for him being dead for seven years."

"Wait. . . You mean me?" I asked.

"Why not? You're always giving him bad news anyway," Vegeta said. "For once break it to him that the world isn't ending."

I sighed and pulled out my phone and called home.

When my mom answered the phone I could barely hear her over music playing in the background.

"Mom," I said.

"Hold on, dear," Mom said. "Goku! Turn that down! Goku!"

There was no response as the music continued to blare in the background.

"Goku, I swear-."

_"I say Doctor! Ain't there nothing I can take, I say Doctor, to relieve this bellyache! I say Doctor-!"_

Suddenly there was a loud crash and then silence.

"Aww, but Chichi, what about the lime in the coconut," Dad said.

"Your daughter is on the phone!" Mom shouted.

"Kairi loves Lime in the Coconut!" Dad protested.

"Mom, please. Tell Dad he needs to come to come to Bulma's house. It's an emergency," I said.

"Why? Are you in trouble again?" Mom asked.

"No. It's just. . . He really needs to come here right now. It can't wait," I said.

"All right," Mom said. "I'll tell him."

"Thank you. I'll see you Saturday," I said. I hung up the phone.

"What are you planning to tell him?" Trunks asked.

"I suppose Bardock will have to explain himself won't he? He's certainly not telling me what he's doing here," I said.

"He says he doesn't remember. He said he woke up by the river in Karakura Town three days ago. All he remembers before that is being blown to bits by Frieza," Bulma said.

"Suspicious," Vegeta said.

"Quite," I said.

"Hey guys!" Dad said appearing out of thin air, startling all of us. "What's going on?"

"Life as we know it has been turned upside down," I said.

"Is someone trying to destroy the Earth again?" Dad asked.

"No," I said. I looked to Bulma, Vegeta, and Trunks for some kind of assistance in this situation, but they stood there quietly and nonchalant. "Daddy. . . What would you say if I told you that. . . Bardock was alive?"

"Bardock? You mean my father?" he asked. I nodded. "I'd say that. . . Less surprising things have happened."

"Then don't be surprised."

Bardock had emerged from the lab.

Dad looked at him then looked at me.

"Who is he?" Dad asked.

"I'm your father. Didn't you hear your kid?" Bardock asked.

". . . But you got blown up," Dad said. "By Frieza."

Bardock chuckled. "And yet here I am. Although you'll know plenty about coming back from the dead, wouldn't you son?"

"How do you know all this? Why were you following me? Are you really who say you are?" I asked.

"You've got a lot of questions don't you? I bet that's why they made you a detective?" he asked.

"I'm not a detective anymore. Shows how much attention you pay," I said. "You're a pretty bad stalker."

"You've been following my daughter?" Dad asked. "I don't care who you are. I don't like people tailing my kids. I don't care what reason they have. So I think you'd better tell me what you want right now."

Bardock chuckled again. "All right I'll tell you. I was on Kanassa, taking care of business like I always do. We'd just wiped out everyone, or so we thought. There was one survivor. To this day I still don't know what the hell they did exactly, but he said that it was going to make sure that I ended up seeing the Saiyans get their comeuppance for doing Frieza's dirty work for him all those years. And he was right. Cause that's what I saw. Frieza wiping us out. I thought it was a nightmare or something, but I kept seeing it. These images just kept flashing in my head and I eventually just accepted that it was going to happen."

"You mean. . . You mean that. . . They made you see the future?" I asked.

Bardock nodded. "Remind you anyone you know?"

"Yeah! That sounds just like Kairi!" Dad said.

"It was a rhetorical question," Bardock said.

"He does that a lot," Bulma said.

"So the Kanassans forced you to see the future because you genocided their entire planet?" I asked.

"Never heard genocide used as a verb before," Bardock said.

"Well it was hard to describe your line of work otherwise," I said. Bardock rolled his eyes. "So the Kanassans are the reason you can see the future?"

"Probably why you can too," he said.

"I doubt it. Dad was already born when you were on Kanassa and I may not be passing biology class at the moment, but I do know that genetics don't work that way," I said.

"You're failing another class?" Dad asked.

"My grades are not important right now, Dad," I said. "I'd also appreciate it if you didn't mention that Mom."

"The reason you can see the future, Miss Kairi, is because of Kanassans. They wanted me to pay for all the horrible stuff I did for Frieza. He wanted me to suffer. And now you get to suffer with me," he said.

"Like a curse?" I asked. He nodded.

"That sounds ridiculous." Trunks said. I nodded in agreement.

"Then please explain to me why your friend here keeps having horrible visions of the future, visions which never, ever have any good end to them," Bardock said.

Trunks and I exchanged glances and I looked down to my shoes.

"So what are you here for?" Dad asked.

"Well before Frieza wiped out Vegeta, I saw him getting his ass handed to him by my son—and then I saw his kids, and you Trunks and then. . . I was by the river in that city. I wandered around for a while until I saw your daughter canoodling with some orange haired kid and I recognized her," Bardock said.

"Canoodling?" Dad asked looking over to me. "What's that? Like making pasta?"

"Yes, dad. Ichigo and I were making pasta," I said.

"You are a terrible person," Trunks said.

"Maybe your parents would like to know about all the pasta we used to make together, Trunks," I said.

". . . Touché," he said.

". . . Anyway," Bardock continued, eyeing Trunks and me curiously, "I followed her around until she sniffed me out."

"So. . . Here you are?" Vegeta asked.

"Don't take that tone with me, Princey. I don't know how I got here, but I am," he said.

"So you saw me and instead of saying anything you just tailed me for three days?" I asked.

"I knew I'd need to get you disentangled from that ginger kid otherwise you'd just be giving me the third degree," he said. "And I was right."

I looked up at my dad and then back to Bardock.

"And now what do you plan to do since you're here?" Vegeta asked.

Bardock shrugged. "I guess we'll find out."

888

"So you're taking him back home? With mom?" I asked. Dad nodded. "She's not going to like that."

"You're not gonna like it either. He's sleeping in your room," Dad said.

"Why my room?" I asked.

"You never sleep in it anyway," he said patting me on the head. "And you're doing bad in school again. Just accept this and I won't tell your mother."

I sighed. "Fine. You win this round. . . Are you okay?"

Dad nodded. "Yeah. Not the first guy I ever met that was supposed to be dead. And he's my dad. So he can't be that bad. . . Except that he killed all those people. . . But so did Vegeta and he's an okay guy."

"True. This is all true," I said. "And obviously he'll be back on Saturday for Bulma's party. That'll be fun to see how all your buddies react to his being alive."

"Yep. . . Speaking of surprises I hear Ichigo is coming?" Dad asked.

I chuckled. "Oh. . . Yeah. He's coming on Saturday with Orihime. You remember her don't you? She-."

"Relax, I'm sure he's not that bad," Dad said.

"I'm not worried about you not liking him. It's just that, my formerly deceased grandfather just showed up and that might strike Ichigo as strange. Among other things," I said.

"Well, just think of how weird it'll be for Shiori's future husband to find out that his sister in law is married to an alien," Dad said.

"True. I do have it better than aunt Shiori. And you'll like Ichigo. He's never been in my room without supervision and whenever I'm at his house his dad is always there because he runs the clinic which actually a part of his house so he's always there. So I've been very well behaved and he's really nice and really smart," I said.

"Does he make good pasta?" he asked.

I covered my face as I restrained a laugh. "Canoodling does not mean what you think it means."

"I thought so. I don't recall ever seeing Trunks make spaghetti," he said.

I shook my head. "He's still a good guy in spite of the canoodling."

"I see," Dad said. "Well I don't know him."

"No you don't," I said.

"So, obviously, I'll have to fight him to make sure he's worthy," Dad said.

". . . That was a joke right?" I asked.

Dad chuckled and patted my head. "I love you, kiddo."

"I love you too, but you didn't answer my question," I said.

"I think it's time for me to head home now," Dad said getting up from his seat next to me on the couch. "I've got to explain all this to your brothers and Chichi."

"Daddy, you were joking right?" I asked.

"See you Saturday," he said walking out the room.

"Dad! Tell me that was a joke!" I shouted after him. But there was no response.

888

Shortly after my father and the man who was allegedly my grandfather departed, I left and made my way to Ichigo's house. I knocked on the front door and was greeted by Karin.

"Pretty late for you to be here, huh?" she asked.

"Is your brother home?" I asked, ignoring her sass.

"Yeah," she said. "But I'm not allowed to let people in the house when my dad's not home."

"Your dad's in the clinic. I saw the lights on," I said. "And I know that rule and it only applies to strangers."

"And you are?" Karin asked.

"Getting' real tired of your shit," I said. "I have had a very rough afternoon."

"I don't think you should be swearing at me, especially since you're a stranger," she said.

"Are you this rude to everyone?" I asked.

"No just weird strangers who make out with my brother," she said.

I'd learned that Karin was, like her brother, Spiritually Aware, which is probably why she hadn't warmed up to me at all. Her awareness was pretty impressive too, a lot like Kuwabara's had been before we subjected him to Genkai's tournament and Maze Castle. I probably gave her a bad feeling every time I walked into the house.

"You are always just a ray of sunshine," I said.

"Karin, let her in," Ichigo said walking into the kitchen. "Don't you have homework?"

"I was just joking with her," Karin said as I walked past her.

"I'm watching you, Karin Kurosaki," I said.

"And I'm watching you if Ichigo doesn't learn to close his door," she said.

"Hey, will you shut up already!" Ichigo said grabbing my hand.

"I came down here to get a snack until your girlfriend interrupted me," Karin said.

"Fine then we'll leave you to your snack," Ichigo said. I followed him up to his room where he made a point to shut the door.

"So how did things go after you left?" he asked.

I flopped face down onto his bed.

"Not well?" he asked.

I rolled over onto my back and took a deep breath. "My grandfather, my father's father, was blown up when my Dad's home planet was destroyed, and so the story goes that before the planet was blown up, he kept screaming about how Frieza was going to kill everyone and everyone thought he was crazy. . . until Frieza blew up the planet and then there was no one left to complain. Any who. . . He's alive and he's at my house with my dad and he's the one who's been following me for the past few days and he has no idea how on earth he got here and the reason he could see visions of the planet getting blown up was because the people of the planet Kanassa who he'd just recently wiped out cursed him to see the Saiyans get what was coming to him so he can see visions of the future and he thinks that I'm cursed too which is why I've been seeing horrible things happen to people in my visions. . . So no. . . Not well."

Ichigo sat down next to me.

"You always have these really random stories to tell and they sound made up but they all end up being real and I just don't know how to handle that," he said.

"I don't know how to handle that. I'm used to dead relatives popping up but usually I expect them to," I said. "Now people are just coming back to life all willy-nilly. It's super inconsiderate and also taxing on my mental health. Oh, and now dead ol' grandpa is coming over Saturday so coming to Bulma's party Saturday should be fun and not at all traumatic."

"For me or for you?" he asked.

"My whole life is one traumatic moment," I said.

Ichigo reached down and ran his fingers through my hair. "You'll survive. It's not the end of the world after all. Not today at least."

"True," I said with a chuckle. "I just hope you still like me after this weekend."

"Well, there aren't any serial killers in your family are there?" Ichigo asked.

". . . Yeah, actually. . . My grandfather who was cursed to see visions of the future after genociding an entire race," I said. I buried my face in my hands.

Ichigo brought my hands down from my face. "You should go home and get some sleep and stop stressing yourself out. This has to be pretty low on the list of weird things that have happened to you."

"True. I did meet you. Your life might actually be weirder than mine," I said.

"Nope. Everyone stays dead," Ichigo said. ". . . Usually." He leaned down and kissed me.

"Well, you hang out with a stuffed animal. That's pretty weird," I said.

"Your dad's an alien," he said.

"Yeah, you can't really top aliens," I said. He leaned down and kissed me again.

The way Ichigo kissed me was always so passionate, but gentle. I could feel the way his lips moved against mine and the steady rise and fall of his chest and he breathed. He twisted his fingers through my hair slowly and his hand gripped my waist firmly. My skin broke out into goose bumps and pulled him closer to me.

But all good things must come to an end.

I sensed the hollow, pretty powerful and not too far away. Ichigo pulled away from me.

"I've gotta-."

"I know," I said. He leaned down and kissed me, lingering for a moment before he pulled away. "I'll just go home." I climbed off his bed. "Stay safe."

"I will," he said.

I walked out of his bedroom and closed the door behind myself.


	4. You're Just Somebody That I Used to Know

_[A/N: Happy Friday all! Thank you for your kind birthday wishes! Please enjoy and don't forget to review!]_

_**Chapter 4: Now You're Just Somebody That I Used to Know**_

"It was great! Tatsuki said I was a natural," Yukina said. She'd spent the next afternoon at school in the Kendo Club with Tatsuki and she'd apparently really enjoyed herself.

"I'm glad you like it. Maybe before we know it, we'll be seeing you in their annual competitions," Kurama said as we walked to his house. "They get very serious."

"But think how much fun you'll have beating the crap out of people with a wooden stick," I said.

"Isn't that why you got kicked out of the kendo club?" Ichigo asked.

"It might have been one of the contributing factors in my outburst," I said. "But to be fair, Tatsuki beat the crap out of me afterward."

"She told me," Yukina said.

"She tells everyone," Ichigo said.

"Who wouldn't? It's not every day that you get to break a stick over Kairi's head," Kurama said as he unlocked his front door. "I myself have done it many times in my childhood."

"I remember," I said as we walked inside.

"Did you guys spend a lot of time together when you were kids?" Ichigo asked.

"A bit. Kairi was always here for school and when she wasn't with Trunks, she was with me. Ruining my life," Kurama said. "And now she sleeps in the room next door to mine so I'm obviously living the dream."

"I love you too, Cousin," I said.

"Snacks anyone?" Kurama asked.

"I would like-."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Kairi. Seeing as how you live here and your legs don't appear to be broken I think you can make your own snack," Kurama said.

"Okay, butt face," I said. "I'm going to change and then I'll be right back to make my own snack."

I walked upstairs to my room and pushed my bedroom door open. Sitting in my desk chair, was Hiei.

"Detective," he said.

"Nope," I said closing my bedroom door and standing in the hallway. So now that I was dating Ichigo and doing relatively well with my life, my grandfather decided to come back from the dead and now, unless I was hallucinating, Hiei was also back, and sitting inside my room. I took a deep breath and then reopened my bedroom door. Hiei was still sitting there. "Oh, I'm not hallucinating. Damn."

"Well, that's a courteous greeting," he said.

"Leave. Leave right now," I said pointing to my window. I did not have time for Hiei's tomfoolery today.

"I came here for a reason," he said.

"Because you're a life ruiner," I said. "Now please go because I am in no fit state to entertain today."

Hiei scoffed.

"Kairi, are you hiding the cookies again?" Kurama asked. He then stopped in the door way and stared into my room. And then he began to chuckle. "Hello, Hiei."

"Kurama," he replied.

"I'm going downstairs to let you two sort this out," Kurama said. "Don't take too long though. Ichigo might get suspicious."

"Fuck off," I said as he walked away.

"The soul reaper?" Hiei asked.

"Yes," I said crossing my arms and leaning against my door frame.

"And he'd be suspicious because?" Hiei asked.

". . . Why do you care?" I asked.

"Healthy curiosity," he said.

"He's my boyfriend and he's sitting in my living room," I said.

"Oh," he said.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing," he said. "Just a helpful coincidence."

"Why?" I asked.

"I'm sure you've noticed the ghosts. The hollows," he said.

"So you came here looking for Ichigo?" I asked.

"I came looking for answers which I suspected you and all your infinite connections might be able to provide," he said.

I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I sighed. There was Ichigo.

"I wondered what was taking you so long," Ichigo said pausing in the doorway, staring at Hiei. "I didn't know you had company."

"Neither did I," I replied. All I could hope for right now was that Hiei, who seemed to get a kick out of irritating everyone, didn't piss off Ichigo, who was a hot head that had no qualms about hitting people in the face when irritated.

"This is Hiei," I introduced him. Hopefully I was going to be able to disarm this situation quickly.

"Oh," Ichigo said, a tone of surprise in his voice.

"What?" Hiei asked.

"Nothing, I just. . . You know," Ichigo started, with a shrug. "I just always thought you'd be taller."

I mentally face-palmed myself as I recalled that Ichigo also had the tendency to accidentally be an asshole.

"I'm-."

"I know who you are, Soul Reaper," Hiei said.

Ichigo looked over to me. "Isn't he just as a friendly as you described him?"

"Probably be friendlier if you didn't talk about his height," I said.

"So perhaps you have an explanation for all the madness?" Hiei asked.

"Madness?" Ichigo asked.

"The hollows," I said.

"Oh. We don't know yet," Ichigo said. "But the Soul Society hasn't said anything really. I think it's just residual energy from that tunnel thing you dealt with."

Hiei rolled his eyes. "Yes. That tunnel has been closed for weeks and yet all these problems we have been plagued with are getting worse. Your deductive skills are almost as remarkable as Urameshi's."

"All this activity started when the tunnel opened up and it hasn't dropped off. It's just the most logical explanation," Ichigo said.

"Well now the tunnel's closed and so is most it's residual energy, so it's more likely that the two have nothing to do with each other," Hiei said.

"Well if I'm wrong and you're right then what's causing it?" Ichigo asked.

"It's your job to know isn't it? I'm not the one with the Zanpakto after all," Hiei said. "Maybe you should be better at your job."

"Hey, I'm just a substitute all right. If something's going on I'm not going to know about it unless they tell me so don't go getting all huffy with me," Ichigo said.

"How about both of you calm down and no one gets huffy with anyone else. I would really like that a lot," I said.

"I don't want to bother you guys, Kurama made nachos and," Yukina paused when she popped up in the door way and then she smiled. "Oh, Hiei! Hi!" She walked past Ichigo and me and over to Hiei and gave him a hug.

A disaster was averted in my room as Hiei's entire face went red and he looked like he was going to vomit. Yukina let go of him and he seemed to relax a little.

"It's so nice seeing you! It's been such a long time," she said. "Are you doing well?"

"Fine," Hiei said, almost as if he wasn't sure he knew how to speak exactly.

"Good," she said.

"Why are you here?" Hiei asked.

"Oh, I'm going to school now with Kairi and Kurama, and Ichigo obviously," Yukina said. "What brings you?"

". . . Uh," Hiei paused.

Now that I thought about it, I couldn't remember Hiei ever having had a conversation with Yukina. Why weren't Kurama and Yusuke here to see this train wreck?

"Oh, that's right. Kurama did mention that you were all lying low because of your falling out with Spirit World. You must be staying close by. . . Except everyone thought you were the one following Kairi, so I doubt that," Yukina said.

"Following you?" Hiei asked turning to me.

"Kairi was being followed by some guy who turned out to be her dead grandfather who isn't really dead," Ichigo said. "You'd know that, but you're never here so who can blame you?"

Hiei rolled his eyes.

"Well, you're here now so it's fine," Yukina said. "You're coming on Saturday aren't you?"

"Huh?" he asked.

"Trunks' mother is having a party on Saturday. All of us are going and so are Ichigo and Orihime and all our new Soul Society attached buddies. We're gonna hang out and bask in the fact that we always save the world and nobody knows," I said. "You're invited even though Bulma and Trunks both kind of hate your guts and I also kind of hate your guts—when are you leaving by the way?"

"Look, how about Yukina and I go downstairs and you two can finish your conversation," Ichigo volunteered.

"Sure you don't want to stay and hang out?" I asked.

Ichigo looked to Hiei and smirked. "Nah. I'm sure you'll be fine and it's not like I've got anything to worry about." He kissed my cheek. "Let's go grab some nachos, Yukina and you can tell me more about kendo club."

"It was good seeing you again, Hiei. I really hope you come Saturday," Yukina said.

She and Ichigo walked out of the room and I took a deep breath.

"Well you have your answer. Soul society hasn't contacted him so he doesn't know what's going on, but he's keeping his eyes open for any new information," I said.

"Yes, I'm sure I'll sleep better knowing it's high on his list of priorities, probably somewhere between doing his school work and feeling you up," he said. I rolled my eyes. "You keep doing that thing with your eyes and they'll get stuck."

"I'm gonna smack you," I said. "Why are you still here? You were gone for six whole weeks and they were perfectly wonderful without you and now you are back and I don't know why."

"And I'm confused about your hostility," he said.

I leered at him, ready to scream, ready to smack him on the face for his blatant ignorance, but no. I was going to be calm about this because Kurama had asked me not to murder him. I closed my door and took a deep breath.

"Six weeks ago after we dealt with Sensui do you remember being here with me in this room?" I asked. He nodded. "Do you remember having a really long conversation with me where you were actually really nice for once?" He nodded again. "And then do you remember taking my pants off and then disappearing for a month and a half."

"I'm pretty sure you left something out there," he said.

I smacked him in the head. "And you think that I wouldn't be the slightest bit upset about it, like I just let every boy I like into my room to get to third base."

"Well I suppose two out of three of us isn't _every_ boy," he said. I smacked him again.

"I am this close to committing homicide, Hiei, and you will be my victim," I said. "Don't test me. You have a lot nerve showing up like this without an apology. Now I'm going to go downstairs with my cousin and your sister and my boyfriend."

"Have a wonderful time," he said with a scoff.

"I will. I'm going to go downstairs and pretend to do homework and then Ichigo and I are going to walk Yukina home to Kuwabara's house where she's staying, and then we're going to go to his house and we're going to make out until we can't see straight. Then I'm coming back here to go to bed and when I wake up in the morning he'll text me to say good morning and then, in a crazy turn of events, I'll actually get to see him tomorrow because that's how relationships work."

"You expectations were sorely misplaced if you thought that anything that happened between us was indicative of a relationship," he said.

"You are unbelievable," I said. "You were in my room with the obvious intention of getting in my pants and you were mostly successful and you're chalking it up to me being naïve? Are you serious right now?"

"Perhaps you shouldn't assume, Detective," he said.

"I think I was well within my rights to assume after you took my pants off," I said. "But you know what, it doesn't matter because I have a fantastic wonderful boyfriend now and unlike you he is not an asshole."

"Congratulations," he said.

"Thank you," I said. "I'm going downstairs. Do not be here when I get back."

"Don't worry. I'll be gone," he said as I opened my bedroom door. "But I will see you Saturday." I turned and glared at him.

". . . I hate you," I hissed.

"No, you don't," he said.

888

"This is going to be hellish," I said on Saturday morning, as I ate breakfast. "It would've been fine initially if it'd just been us and my dad's old friends, maybe I might've even survived bringing Ichigo, but now everything is just complicated," I said.

"Kairi, lots of things weirder than your grandfather popping up out of the blue suddenly alive after forty some odd years have happened, and lots of things worse too," Shiori said.

Kurama's mother, my mother's younger sister, was well informed about all of the goings on in my family and knew essentially everything except that her son was a demon who was hundreds of years old. After his absences from school while dealing with the tunnel we sat her down and explained that Kurama did occasionally help me out as Spirit Detective, but that was about as in depth as the discussion got. Shiori preferred to leave my mother to play the active role in the weirdness she'd inherited when she married my dad and only when her life was threatened did we pull her from normal existence like when Majin Bui attacked.

Other than that, my aunt was as human and normal as they came. She was so uninvolved with the antics my family got into that it was pointless for her to even mention any of the oddities to her fiancé, though she obviously didn't talk about us much considering the living members of it were constantly in flux.

"Aunt Shiori, I am 15-years-old. Maybe you've forgotten this, but when you're my age, everything seems like the end of the world," I said.

"When your mom was about 15, the evil king Piccolo put out a hit on your grandpa and it was actually the end of the world," Shiori said. "Stop complaining. You should be excited."

"I certainly am," Kurama said with a smile.

Acknowledging the fact that Bardock was alive, having Trunks, Ichigo, and Hiei under one roof, introducing my parents and my brothers to Ichigo I bet Kurama was going to be having a swell time watching me slowly sink down into a hole of darkness and despair.

"Hurry and finish getting cleaned up in here so we can go," Shiori said. She exited the kitchen as I stuffed my last piece of bacon into my mouth.

"So, what are you least looking forward to today?" Kurama asked.

"You being a smug ass all day as I slowly descend into madness," I said.

"It will be fine. Goten said that he seems to think Bardock is a nice guy, Ichigo is a nice boy and your parents will adore him, Hiei is an ass, but he only really likes to harass you and usually doesn't like to draw too much attention to himself. You'll be fine," Kurama said.

"Yeah, I know Hiei doesn't like attention. It's confrontation he loves, and wouldn't you know it, but Ichigo's a hot head who is very aggressive and confrontational," I said. "If Yukina hadn't shown up when she had when Hiei was here they definitely would've started hitting each other."

". . . Did you know you have a type?" Kurama asked. I frowned at him. "I'm just being honest. And anyway, I don't know why you've developed this seething hatred for Hiei all of a sudden. You don't have to hate him just because you liked him and now you're dating someone else."

"I know," I said. "That would be silly."

"Did something happen between the two of you before he disappeared?" Kurama asked.

I nodded. "But I don't want to talk about it. Just know that my anger is warranted, even more so now after what he said yesterday. As far as I'm concerned Hiei's just a skeevy little snake in the grass."

". . . Now I'm concerned," Kurama said.

"Don't be," I said. "Hiei and everything between us is in the past."

Kurama nodded. "I suppose I'm glad to hear that."

"Really? Isn't Hiei your best friend? You were kind of rooting for him before," I said.

"That's true. He may be my closest friend, but I remember how you were after he left," Kurama said. "You're very brave and very strong, but I saw the way you'd stare out your bedroom window like you were waiting for him and it made sad to see you like that."

I shrugged. "It's not like I'm the first girl who's ever gotten blown off. I _know_ I'm not the first girl Hiei's ever done it to."

"Still, friend or not, I would trust Hiei with my life, but not with you," Kurama said. "Not with your heart anyway."

"Sheesh, when did you turn into my big brother?" I asked.

"I'm not entirely certain, but despite being obnoxious and less intelligent than most, I do care about your well being," Kurama said.

"I'm going to ignore that dig you took at me and just say thank you," I said rolling my eyes.


	5. I'll Try to do my Best to Impress

_[A/N: Whoa! Someone forgot to update last Friday. My apologies.]_

_**Chapter Five: I'll Try to do my Best to Impress**_

When we arrived at the Briefs compound, all of my dad's old friends were present, but my family and friends hadn't arrived. I supposed it was better that way considering this way I'd be there to run interference for any uncomfortable questions my dad and Yusuke were sure to ask any strangers.

"When was the last time you saw any of your father's friends?" Kurama asked.

"I think I was about 12 last time I saw the guys at Kame House," I said. "They probably don't even remember you. You were a very intense nine year old way back in the olden days of Majin Buu. You're like a completely different person now."

"Whereas you still act like an eight year old," he said. I rolled my eyes. "Yes, because that disproves my point."

"I am in not in the mood for your B.S. Shuichi," I said.

"Hey! Is that you Kairi?"

I looked away from Kurama and saw we were being beckoned by Krillin and the rest of my dad's people. I waved politely and walked over to them.

"Wow, you look so different now," Tien said.

"Well, I was a foot and a half shorter last time you saw me," I said.

"And you've got weird hair now," Yamcha said.

"What? The white? I like it," I said. I'd bleached it when I turned 14 and I didn't look back.

"You like it because Chichi hates it," Shiori said coming up beside me examining the streaks in my hair. "And it's so long and wild now."

"You don't tell Shuichi to cut his hair," I said.

"Everyone loves my hair," Kurama said.

"Yeah well. . . Well," I paused trying to think of something insulting to say that wouldn't cause Shiori to smack me in the head, "well, you're easily my least favorite red headed person."

"And you know _so_ many people with red hair," he said.

"Yeah, I do. It's like. . ." I paused to count, "It's like. . . Like four other people. And they're like my favorite people. Except maybe Chizuru, but she probably doesn't really count anyway."

"Why do you say that?" Kurama asked.

"Have you seen the color of her hair? I'm guessing the carpet doesn't match the drapes on that one," I said. And then Shiori hit me upside the head. "Ow! Dammit!" And then again. "Ow! Stop!"

"Watch your mouth," she scolded me.

"I can't. My mouth does things without my brain's consent," I said. "It's all Shuichi's fault. You all remember my obnoxious cousin don't you?"

"Yeah. I didn't even think you knew how speak back then," Yamcha said. "Mostly you just kept glaring at me."

"He still glares at me all the time," I said.

"Only when you're being obnoxious and annoying," he said. "Which is most of the time."

"I wouldn't be so obnoxious and annoying if you weren't such a butt face," I said.

"You two act more like brother and sister than cousins," 18 said with a chuckle.

"No we don't. Goten and Gohan are like a million times cooler than ol' Butt Face here," I said.

"Speaking of which, where are those guys anyway?" Krillin asked.

"Probably still at home. You know how dad loves to sleep," I said. Hopefully they were all awake and formulating the best way to introduce Bardock because I refused to do it again. I was too busy worrying about Ichigo and Hiei.

"So, Trunks filled us in on what happened to your gig as Spirit Detective," Krillin said.

"Yeah, that blows. What are you gonna do with all your free time now?" Yamcha asked.

"Now she's just got more free time to not do homework and sleep," Shiori said patting me on the head. I nodded in agreement. I was quite the directionless under achiever at the moment.

"And make out with her boyfriend," Kurama slipped in.

I turned and glared at him. "Judas."

All of my dad's friends were giggling and I stood waiting for the inevitable question.

"So. . ." Krillin started, "is it-."

"I'd rather cut my foot off with a rusty saw than go out with Kairi Son ever again," Trunks said casually, and yet I got the distinct impression that the only reason he hadn't sworn at me was because we were in front of the adults.

"What he means is that we _were_ dating, but we broke up a while ago," I said.

"What happened? Krillin here was really rooting for you," Eighteen said.

"Nothing serious really," I said, trying my hardest to end the conversation before things took a turn.

"No, nothing serious," Trunks said, rolling his eyes. "She's just a lying, cheating, soul sucking harpie and now she's found someone else's life to ruin."

"Wow, really? It's like that, Trunks," I said.

"Well, Kairi, did you not cheat on me and lie about it? Because that's what I remembering happening," Trunks said. "Do you remember it differently?"

". . . Slightly," I said.

"Would you say that you weren't being an emotional terrorist?" he asked.

I frowned at him. "I am not an emotional terrorist."

"Anymore," Trunks said.

"I already explained to you-."

"And I already explained to you that you were full of crap," he said.

"Gee, why don't you tell us how you really feel," I said rolling my eyes.

"Why don't you or are you still in a constant state of denial," he said.

"Boy, you two look like you're making everyone really uncomfortable." An arm draped over my shoulder and Yusuke appeared beside me. That my partner, always coming to rescue me from drowning, even in the metaphorical sense.

"Hey, is Yukina here yet?" Kuwabara exclaimed.

"No. Control yourself," I said. Yukina had kendo practice at school this morning so Kurama walked her to school and she was going to come when she was finished with Orihime, Uryu, Chad and Ichigo. Kuwabara was the most impatient person on the planet.

"These your friends?" Krillin asked.

"Her best friends. The only friends she has that matter," Yusuke said pulling me into a tight one armed hug. "Once upon a time some girl tried to drown Kairi in kindergarten and I saved her and since that day we've spent many a day together, harassing our fellow classmates. . . Until she got expelled."

"The only reason you haven't gotten expelled is because they don't have any hope for you. Kairi got kicked out so she could maybe do better at a different school," Keiko said. "They're just waiting for you to drop out."

"Well too bad. Since I got axed from being Spirit Detective it freed up a lot of my time. I actually did my homework yesterday," Yusuke said.

"And all of it was wrong," Keiko said.

"Well you get points for trying," Yusuke said.

"Only in math," Keiko said.

"That was math right?" Yusuke asked.

"No," Keiko said.

"Then well what the hell was it?" Yusuke asked.

"Biology," Keiko said.

"That explains a few things," Yusuke said.

"So. . . Is this your new boyfriend?" Krillin asked.

"Ewe, no. That would be like incest. This idiot is Yusuke," I said. "This is his girlfriend Keiko. This is Kuwabara."

"And this is Hiei, the guy Kairi dumped Trunks for," Yusuke said pointing at Hiei.

I glared at Yusuke. "Sleep with one eye open tonight, Urameshi."

"Of course, before you ask, Hiei got dumped too. No one's good enough for our Kairi's high standards," Yusuke said now patting me on the head in addition refusing to let me go from his hug. "Except this mystery guy none of us has met yet, well apparently I did meet him once or twice, but I can't remember the name and the face of _every _ginger I've ever beat up. I had to beat the crap out of Kuwabara like 50 times before I remembered his name and that is not an exaggeration."

"My favorite thing about Yusuke are his people's skills," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Oh, like yours are any better or I should I remind you of how many times you've broken Rei's nose," Yusuke said.

I let out a sigh. "Yusuke, Keiko, Kuwabara, Hiei, these are my dad's friends, Tien, Chiaotzu, Yamcha, Eighteen, and Krillin."

"Eighteen? If you don't mind me saying that is a weird name," Yusuke said.

"Android Eighteen," she said.

"Oh. . . I follow. Weird crowd your dad runs with," Yusuke said.

"Yes, and you are the very standard of normality, Yusuke," Kurama said.

"I love the conceited way you speak to me," Yusuke said.

"You didn't use that word right," Keiko said.

"Points for trying," Yusuke said.

"This is my aunt, by the way. Shiori, Shuichi's mom," I said.

"Oh, right! I met you once! You were in the hospital. It was a long time ago. You probably don't remember me," Yusuke said. "You know, you look a lot like Kairi's mom. You're sister's right?"

"Yes," she said. "Yusuke. . . You know, your name is really familiar."

"Well, I am pretty popular in certain circles," Yusuke said finally letting me go to smugly brush imaginary dirt from his green jacket.

"Yusuke Urameshi—you're the kid that Master Genkai brought on as her apprentice," Tien said.

"That's it! You're the kids Genkai is training now. You're much different than I expected you to be. She mostly just calls you-."

"Dimwit," Yusuke said. "Yeah. Obviously mutual respect is not the foundation of our relationship. Mostly it's that I'm awesome."

"I think it's just because she couldn't find anyone else," Hiei said.

"It's just not a conversation without you taking a dig at me, Hiei," Yusuke said. "That's what we keep you around for."

"I thought it was to torture me," he said.

"Why'd you come if you were just going to complain?" Yusuke asked.

"Yukina asked him to come. Can you remember the last time you ever said no to her?" I asked.

"Never. Not once. Yesterday at Kuwabara's house she made lemonade and it was awful and I had two glasses of it," Yusuke said. "How we roped such a nice and honest person into our group I'll never know."

"I blame Hiei," I said with a chuckle. He glared at me.

"Why Hiei?" Kuwabara asked.

"She blames me for everything," Hiei said.

"Because everything is your fault," I said.

"Kairi also has excellent people skills," Keiko said.

"She gets that from Chichi," Krillin said.

"I want to be offended you're right," I said. I got my fighting prowess from my dad, and my unfavorable attitude from my mother. "Oh, so you know that attack I used on Doctor Ichigaki to make my point at the Dark Tournament? That was Krillin's attack!"

"Wow! Really. That was awesome. She cut some guy up into five pieces. It was great," Yusuke said. "And then she kept complaining about it afterward saying something like 'Destructo Disk always cauterizes' or something."

"Well it does if you don't half ass it," Krillin said. "Don't worry Kairi. One day, you'll get as good as me."

"Yep. And then she can miss every time she uses it," Yamcha said.

"Hey, Yamcha, remember that time you used your Wolf Fang Fist to do something useful, be no one else does," Krillin said.

"Oh, Kairi, you're finally here," Bulma said approaching us.

"Hello, Mrs. Trunks' Mom. You're looking gorgeous as always," Yusuke said. "I love that haircut on you."

"Tone it down, Casanova," Keiko said.

"I'm glad you could come," Bulma said. "You two must be Hiei and Kuwabara. Kairi and Trunks have told me a lot about you. It's nice to finally meet you."

"You too. Thanks for having us. I've never actually been to Capsule Corp. It's huge!" Kuwabara said.

"Yeah. I guess that's one of the perks of my father being a genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist," Bulma said. "Kairi, Trunks, can you come help me finish setting up. I'm sure your friends will survive without you for a few minutes."

"Yeah, I have to ask your dad's friends a bunch of uncomfortable questions that I don't want you around to hit me for," Yusuke said pushing me away.

I walked with Trunks and Bulma to the other side of the compound where we were instructed to finish setting the tables up so she could start putting out food.

"'Lying, cheating, soul sucking harpie?'" I asked Trunks. "Way to be brutal. Thanks."

"I just don't want you parading around here like you're some sort of perfect little princess," Trunks said.

"Well you don't have to act like what I did was so traumatizing. I've apologized like a million times and I really do feel bad about what I did. If you can't get over it, I'm sorry," I said.

"You just don't want me telling your new boyfriend about what happened," Trunks said.

"I already told Ichigo everything for your information," I said. "It's not like I don't know how you and Hiei get and I decided that when you inevitably meet I'd rather avoid some kind of epic confrontation."

"So you've found someone else with an attitude problem now?" Trunks asked.

"What can I say; I must have a type," I said. "Easily irritated, confrontational and a sword must be all I'm looking for."

"Clearly," he said.

"Can you stop being a jerk now please?" I asked. "I really liked it better when we were friends. I liked it better when we were make out buddies in denial."

"You were the only one in denial, Kairi. Which is why we're having this conversation," he said.

"I've already admitted to being a horrible person. Isn't that enough? I have to introduce Ichigo to my parents later and Yusuke is no doubt over there asking Tien about his third eye and making outlandish parallels to Hiei. Or worse, asking Eighteen how she procreates if part of her anatomy is robotic," I said.

"That sounds like it's not my problem," Trunks said. "Why don't you ask your new boyfriend to help you, or even better, ask Hiei since his sole purpose in life seems to be popping up and coming to your rescue."

"You are a dick," I said.

"And I'm sorry you feel that way," he said.

This whole party was already off to an epically bad start. Trunks still hated me and now even people we hadn't seen in years knew that he hated me and also probably assumed I was a "lying, cheating, soul sucking harpie."

The door opened and I watched Goten enter. That meant that my grandfather was here now too and that the real test of my mental stability had begun.

888

"And then I woke up by the river," Bardock said, explaining to us his story of the destruction of planet Vegeta. "I thought I was in Hell because I assumed Hell didn't have beds. If they did you'd think they'd have beds of spikes. Or spiders. Or spikey spiders. . . Spikers."

". . . Well I think that just answered every question I ever had about Goku ever," Bulma said.

"I'd say that's pretty accurate," I said.

"Why don't you do something useful and find out where that boyfriend of yours is," Yusuke said.

"Yes. You said he'd be here and I'm eager to meet him," Mom said.

Being used to dead coming back to life, Bardock being alive wasn't that hard of a pill to swallow and generally everyone accepted it and was eager to solve the mystery of why Bardock had come back to life at all. Being that my mother had spent the last few days with him, and considering that I'd spent the last few days crying about it to my friends, soon their attention was turned from the mysterious case of Bardock to the mystery of who Ichigo was.

"Well, I've met Ichigo several times and I can say that Kairi has very good taste," Shiori said with a smile. "I thought at first something had to be wrong with him, because there was no possible way she could ever do better than Trunks."

"Why would you even say that? Trunks is not the measuring by which all other males are measured. He's actually kind of a tool as it turns out," I said.

"Kairi, you know I love you," Mom said wrapping her arm around me and gently stroking my hair, "but you're so weird and abrasive and, I love you, but you're not that bright."

"Mom!" I said.

"I'm just saying, you take after your father and most boys wouldn't put up with that," she said.

"This is outrageous," I said. "Isn't family supposed to respect my choices and know that in the end I will do the right thing?"

"Yes, but only if they trust you and you're not slowly flunking out of school," Mom said.

"I love you too, Mom," I said rolling my eyes.

"Well, Ichigo is fantastic despite your suspicion," Shiori said.

"Well, we'll just see how he measures up to Trunks," Bulma said. If anyone was going to scrutinize Ichigo the way my mother was going to, it was Bulma who loved me, but hate that I stabbed her son in the heart.

"I felt the same way, but I met him and even you'll be impressed Bulma. Trust me," Shiori said.

"I'm sure he's great," Videl said reassuringly. "Even if he's not Trunks I think we should be happy Kairi's happy."

"Thank you, sister. Everyone should listen to you," I said. Damn, Gohan had such good taste in women. I loved, Videl.

"You should tell her to cut her hair because she won't do it for me," Mom said. "Does Ichigo like your hair?"

"Yes, Ichigo likes my hair," I said with a scoff.

"Are you sure he wouldn't like it shorter and all one color?" Mom asked.

"Can we let the hair go? I wore a dress for you today, Mom. One thing at a time," I said.

The door opened and Yukina stepped inside, my classmates in tow.

"Oh, they're here," I said. I could feel my heart pounding harder in my chest as my anxiety level rose.

"Which one is he?" Mom asked.

"The tall one with the orange hair," Shiori said.

". . . Really?" Mom asked looking down to me. I nodded. She looked at him and then back to me.

"No, but really?" Bulma asked.

"Yes," I said. "Why do you keep asking?"

"He's really cute," Videl said.

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked.

"Nothing, I'm just. . . Surprised," Mom said. "I'll just have to meet him. Bring him over here. I'll get your father."

"All right, just take it easy on him," I said, knowing that the statement would be in vain as subtlety was not a trait my mother possessed.

"Go on," Mom said.

I walked over to them where Kurama was already busy introducing Hiei, Yusuke, Kuwabara and Keiko.

"I can't believe you actually know the owners of Capsule Corp.," Uryu said.

"I promise that's the least surprising thing you'll learn about me today," I said. "And I apologize in advance for my dad. He can get really weird and say some really off the wall stuff. Just go with it. Oh, and don't mention needles around him. He has a huge phobia." Then I turned to Ichigo. "I hope my friends haven't traumatized you."

"No, not yet anyway," Ichigo said.

"Give me a few minutes," Yusuke said.

"You'll have to wait," Goten said popping up.

"Hey, what are you doing over here? I am bringing him to you. The whole family only gets to have one go at him," I said.

"As always, darling older sister, I am here to help you," Goten said. He turned to Ichigo. "I'm Goten, Kairi's taller, more intelligent younger brother."

"Wow, fuck you," I said.

"My sister is very neurotic," Goten said placing his hand over my face.

"I've noticed," Ichigo replied with a chuckle.

"So I am here to assure you that while she's busy having an anxiety attack over nothing, I will not let my family do anything to traumatize. We don't bite. . . Well sometimes dad does, but only if your hand happens to be near something he's trying to eat and then it's probably on accident," Goten said.

"Thank you. I'm sure that inspired so much confidence," I said.

"Don't be such a whiny baby. Come on," Goten said.

They were all waiting for him when I walked away from my friends.

"This is Ichigo," I said, feeling that was a good place to start. "Ichigo, this is my older brother Gohan, his wife Videl, my mom and dad, Chichi and Goku, and this is Bulma who's basically family. Where's Vegeta?"

"He said he doesn't care and that Bulma and Trunks both need to 'suck it up,'" Goten explained. I talked a lot of shit about Vegeta, but sometimes he did make my life easier.

"It's nice to meet you all. Kairi talks about you guys all the time," Ichigo said.

"Well we haven't heard much about you, then again Kairi's always been quiet about that kind of stuff," Gohan said.

"With a family like ours who can blame her?" Goten said.

"You're very tall. How tall are you?" Bulma asked.

"Five-nine," Ichigo replied.

"And you fight monsters?" Dad asked.

Ichigo nodded. "Hollows."

"Interesting. And what kind of grades do you get?" Mom asked. She didn't ask how dangerous it was that he was fighting monsters of what his parents could possibly think of that. Nope. My mother was concerned about his academics.

"I've been on honor roll since kindergarten. I'm in the top ten percent of our grade," Ichigo said.

"Really?" Mom asked. "So you fight monsters all day and still have time for homework?"

"I sure do," Ichigo said. "I won't get into a good college without good grades."

I felt a bit relieved as I watched my mother swoon as he said things like "good grades" and "college."

"And what about your parents?" Mom asked.

"Well my mother passed away when I was a kid, but my father is a doctor and he runs a clinic," Ichigo said.

"A doctor?" Mom asked. Another magic word.

"Yeah. He can do pretty much anything aside from major surgery," Ichigo said. "My sisters and I help him out sometimes."

"Oh, you've got sisters?" Videl asked.

"Yuzu and Karin. They're 12. Twins. Karin's a bit of an introvert, but Yuzu's practically the reason I'm even going out with Kairi. She just kept on insisting Kairi come over for dinner," Ichigo said with a chuckle.

"She sounds lovely," Mom said.

"Yeah, yeah, stop asking him all this boring stuff—how strong are you?" Dad asked.

"Uh-."

"Never mind; let's just arm wrestle to figure it out. I'll get a table," Dad said turning away.

"No, Dad," I said grabbing him. "No."

"But I have to know how strong he is," Dad said.

"About as strong as Hiei was during the Dark Tournament. A little stronger maybe," I said.

"Ahh, pretty strong then," Dad said with a nod. "Pretty impressive. But did you know that Kairi's like _way_ stronger than you, by like a lot."

"Yeah, but it doesn't really matter to me," Ichigo said.

". . . And you're really going out with her?" Mom asked. Ichigo nodded. "And she's not paying you or anything?"

"Mom!" I said.

"I'm sorry, but how am I supposed to believe that some boy who gets good grades, whose father is a doctor, and seems perfectly nice likes you?" Mom asked.

"Well, I know Kairi can be pretty weird sometimes and she's unmotivated and lazy and stubborn and intentionally obnoxious for no reason sometimes, but she's really nice and she does well in school when she tries really hard and the subjects aren't math and science, and my sisters think she's great and my dad likes her too," Ichigo said.

"Well isn't that just sweet," Mom said.

"Yeah. You seem like a great guy, which is really hard for me to admit considering Kairi dumped my son a few weeks ago," Bulma said.

"Poke me again and I will cut your arm off!" I hear Hiei scold someone.

"Keep in mind, Kairi dumped Trunks for _that_ guy," Goten said.

"Thanks for the reminder, little brother," I said. "If you don't mind, I'm going to stop Hiei from murdering Kuwabara. . . Or Yusuke. . . Or Kurama."

"Nice to meet you," Mom said.

"Yeah! I'm gonna go find that table to arm wrestle," Dad said, "when Kairi's not watching."

I frowned at him. "Excuse us."


	6. Beat It, Just Beat It

_[A/N: It's Friday and I'm updating on time! Go me! Don't forget to review my lovely lovelies!]_

_**Chapter Six: Beat It, Just Beat It**_

"I'm just saying, Kairi orchestrated the whole sticking Goldie the fish down your pants herself. I was hardly involved," Yusuke said.

"You were the one who started chanting 'Fish Penis' over and over again," Uryu said.

Yusuke chuckled. "Yeah. That I did do. But you can't blame me for taking an awesome joke and running with it can you?"

"I can, actually," Uryu said.

"Just remember this conversation whenever you think they're horrible to you," Keiko said to Hiei.

"I'll make a note of it," Hiei replied.

"Hey, Ichigo, the spot on your face is starting to get redder," Chad said.

Ichigo raised his hand to his face and touched his finger to a spot on his cheek where a red welt seemed to be growing.

"What happened?" I asked him.

Ichigo chuckled. "Yukina happened."

"It was all an accident. They showed up just as I was finishing kendo practice. Ichigo used to take kendo when he was a kid so he wanted to see if he was still any good since he was so out of practice," Yukina said.

"Because you just don't get practice in using a zanpakto every day," Uryu said rolling his eyes.

"Since I'm so inexperienced we thought it'd be funny for to go a round with him," Yukina said.

"Except it turns out Yukina's really good! And she's really quick too. If she had a real sword she'd have cut off his head for sure," Orihime said.

"All right, Yukina!" Kuwabara cheered.

"And now we know what to get you for your birthday," Yusuke said. ". . . When is your birthday?"

"My birthday?" Yukina asked. She thought for a moment. "I know it's soon. . . November. . . November. . ."

"Twenty-first," Hiei said, phrasing it almost like a question.

"Yeah! How'd you know?" Yukina asked.

"Lucky guess," Hiei said.

"It's like you're a mind reader or something," I said

"You're so hilarious," Hiei said.

"I knew you were gonna say that," I said.

"Why? Because you're psychic?" Hiei asked.

"Yep," I said. Then Yusuke started to giggle.

"What?" Keiko asked.

"Did you ever notice," he chuckled, "how booby trap spelled backwards is party boob?"

". . . You're right but how. . . Never mind," Kurama said.

"Also, taco cat backwards is still taco cat," Yusuke said. "I don't know what to do with this information now that I have it."

"Kairi, let's go get something to drink," Keiko said taking my arm. "We'll be back when you're done being five-years-old, Yusuke."

"Not gonna happen," he said.

Keiko took me over to the drink table and I grabbed a bottle of water.

"So, Ichigo," Keiko started, "he seems nice."

"Well, he's too good for me as my mother repeatedly pointed out," I said.

"Oh, nonsense. He's great," Keiko said. "He's cute too. And tall."

I let out a sigh. "I am deeply infatuated by his arms."

"His arms are almost as big as me!" Keiko said.

"I know! I thought Trunks was a physically impressive guy, and Hiei's not very tall, but he's not much of a disappointment at all, but Ichigo is just. . . I don't know," I said.

"The word Adonis comes to mind," Keiko said.

"I don't know what that means, but okay," I said. "He's gorgeous _and_ he's nice _and_ he's smart and I have no idea what he sees in me. I'm so mean and obnoxious and stupid."

"You're not that stupid and you're only slightly obnoxious and you've gotten considerably less mean," Keiko said. "And you're pretty."

"Does it really matter if I'm good looking if I'm still an asshole?" I asked. "Isn't that the problem with Hiei?"

"I thought the problem with Hiei was that he just disappeared after he showed up in your room?" Keiko asked.

"I'm sorry—do you have a different definition of an asshole?" I asked.

"True, although assholes aren't all bad. Look at Yusuke after all," Keiko said.

"Yeah. I guess it's entirely possible to be an asshole and be a sweetheart if your name is Yusuke Urameshi," I said. "There's no hope for the rest of us."

"Come on, Ichigo likes you just fine," Keiko said. "Aren't you glad I forced you into going out with him?"

"I suppose. And he hasn't gotten into it with Hiei yet, so that's good too, especially since those two will probably kill each other with the slightest provocation," I said.

"So you think Hiei's still into you?" Keiko asked.

"Hard to tell. He's still the same as he always is. The only reason I even had a clue before was because he was making out with me," I said.

"Among other things," Keiko giggled. I shoved her. "Oh, come on. I was just joking."

"Well my parents are here and Ichigo's here and I'd prefer that information not get around," I said.

"You mean Ichigo doesn't know about you and Hiei?" Keiko whispered.

"Not to that extent. No one does except you," I said. "Not even Yusuke."

". . . You didn't tell Yusuke?" she asked turning away from me. Suddenly I was stricken with fear.

"Keiko. . . Please tell me you didn't relay that information to your boyfriend," I said.

"I thought you told him! He acted like he knew! You tell him everything anyway," Keiko said.

"And so do you apparently," I said.

"He's my boyfriend. Of course I do," Keiko said. "We don't keep secrets after the whole Spirit Detective Maze Castle fiasco and like I said, you tell him everything anyway. How was I supposed to know?"

I sighed. So Yusuke knew about my unexpected encounter with Hiei. This was a problem because despite being my best friend, Yusuke was, as previously stated, an asshole. This information was going to come up at the worst possible time either to humiliate me or to blackmail me into silence.

"I'm sorry," Keiko said.

"Yeah, me too," I said. "I guess I should go back over there before he ruins my life."

"Oh! You have a ping pong table!" I heard Yukina say excitedly.

"No!" Keiko exclaimed before taking off to our friends.

I followed her to find her with her hands on Yukina's shoulders.

"We agreed at the tournament that you would never play again," Keiko said. "You promised, Yukina. Never again."

"What's going on?" Kurama asked.

"There was an incident at the tournament with the ping pong table in the lobby," Keiko said. "There were tears involved."

"You made Keiko cry?" Yusuke asked.

"Actually it was Rinku from Team Rokuyukai. . . And Jin from Team Masho. . . And Shishi Wakamaru-."

"Okay, I want to play ping pong with Yukina," Goten said tossing an arm around her. "Who else is in? We can do teams."

"I'll play," Ichigo volunteered.

"What about you, Hiei? You never play any games with us," Yukina said, clearly wanting nothing more than to encourage him to be a part of the group.

"And I don't plan to start today," he said.

For a moment Yukina frowned, but then she half smiled. "Oh, come on, Hiei. Now is not the time to chicken out—now is the time to shine."

Our whole group was enveloped in silence for a moment as we let Yukina's words sink in.

"Did. . . Did you just call me a chicken?" Hiei asked, obviously the most confused of us all.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. It's just that you don't want to play ping pong against a girl and I didn't know what else to call you," Yukina said.

My jaw dropped.

"Yukina, I don't like you when you're like this," Keiko said.

"I am not a chicken," Hiei said.

"Then why won't you play?" Yukina asked.

"I don't want to," he said.

"It's fine, Hiei. If you're scared then you don't have to make excuses," Yukina said casually.

"What's happening?" I asked.

"I don't know. But it's awesome," Yusuke said.

"It's like sibling rivalry, but only Hiei's in on it," Kurama said.

"I'm not scared," Hiei said.

"Look, you can be on my team that way you don't have to be afraid of losing," Yukina said.

Hiei was completely red in the face. If it had been anyone else he'd have told her off already, but it was Yukina, the one person on the planet he was unable to scold.

"Fine," Hiei said giving in.

"This is a really bad idea," Keiko said as they walked over to the table. "Yukina is not herself in competitive situations. She gets all scary and mean. Aren't you curious about how she got serious enough to hit Ichigo in the face with a kendo stick?"

". . . That does seem out of character," Kurama said.

"We'll be Team Dragon because I can't think of anything better," Goten said.

"And we'll be Team Sea Slug!" Yukina cheered.

"We are not Team Sea Slug!" Hiei said.

". . . Go Team Sea Slug!" Yukina said, ignoring Hiei.

"She seems normal and adorable," I said.

"Just wait. This is gonna get ugly," Keiko said. "She's gonna make your boyfriend and little brother cry. Maybe even Hiei."

"That'd be a sight," Yusuke said.

"You know, Genkai did say that it'd be pretty good for her to go into sports at school. She also said that Yukina was our problem now which in retrospect was a very odd choice of words," Kurama said.

The game seemed to start innocently enough. Goten served first. For about ten seconds there was a delightful back and forth when suddenly Yukina hit the ball so quickly and with so much force that Hiei, Ichigo, and Goten all stopped moving.

"The first point belongs to Team Sea Slug," Yukina said. "Now, do your worst."

"See what I mean?" Keiko asked.

I always knew that everyone had a bit of a dark side to them. Even sweet Keiko could knock the crap out of people who made her angry, but it never even occurred to me that Yukina might be that way. The similarities between her and her brother were few and far between from what I could tell—they were both short, had the same crimson colored eyes, but that was it. But here was Yukina, taunting Goten and Ichigo like they weren't even her friends. Her one goal was to win and she was extremely good.

The game ended with Team Sea Slug wiping the floor with Team Dragon 10 to 0.

As soon as Yukina scored the final point she tossed the paddle on the table and threw her hands up in the air.

"Yes! In your faces! One day I'm gonna tell your kids about this and then they'll never respect you!" she said mockingly.

"Ouch, that hurt my feelings," Yusuke said.

"I think she's awesome," Kuwabara said as Hiei went to calm his sister down.

"Sorry. I got carried away," Yukina said. "We should play again some times."

"No thanks," Goten said. "I'm gonna go over here and eat a whole plate of cookies. Excuse me."

Goten walked away from the table and Yukina stood there smiling as she high fived Hiei.

"Good game," Ichigo said. "No wonder you're so good at kendo."

"Not to mention your trash talking is excellent," Yusuke said. "You might even give me a run for my money."

Yukina chuckled. "Thanks, I guess. And you were great too, Hiei. We should definitely play again some time."

"As long as I'm on your team," he said.

"Well doesn't that just warm my heart," Kurama said.

"Quiet, fool," Hiei said.

"Why does Hiei seem so anxious?" Ichigo asked.

"Direct communication makes him uncomfortable," I said. "He doesn't like us after all."

"Not even a little bit," Hiei said.

"I don't know. I think you're all really cool guy. I think you should probably lighten up a bit, Hiei," Ichigo said.

"Don't tell me what to do," Hiei said.

"Sorry, didn't mean to offend you or anything. If you want to be cranky that's your prerogative," Ichigo said.

Red flags were going up and I was starting to get some Dark Tournament déjà vu similar to Trunks and Hiei's first meeting. I should've told Ichigo to refrain from engaging Hiei in direct conversation. That would help avoid some problems.

"Thank you respecting my choices," Hiei said dismissively.

"Geez, you've got one bad attitude," Ichigo said.

"What a revelation that is," Hiei said.

"What's your problem?" Ichigo asked. "Were you not hugged enough as a child?"

"Yes, that's exactly right. Congratulations on figuring me out." Hiei said. "Would you like a cookie for your achievement?"

"No I don't want any cookies you condescending jackass!" Ichigo retorted.

"Hey, Kairi, in the future, try not to date people who are easily irritated by other people who are easily irritated," Yusuke said.

"Sorry, I forgot to give him a head's up about Hiei," I said.

The argument was close to progressing to a bad place, but it was cut short. A large amount of Spirit Energy had popped up causing everyone to take note.

"What is that?" Yukina asked.

"Definitely a hollow," Ichigo said. "But where is it?"

Ichigo's question was answered when a large monster came crashing in through the roof of the compound. It was enormous, towering at least six stories high, cloaked completely in black with only a white mask for a face.

"There's two!" Orihime said, pointing behind the other.

"I've got it," Ichigo declared. He then turned to me as he reached into his pocket to pull something out. "Don't step on me."

"What?" I asked, but a second later he was falling to the ground. His body was laying there, unmoving and yet at the same time Ichigo was standing there, clad completely in black with sandals and holding what looked like a giant, black cleaver.

The hollow that had come crashing in through the ceiling was building up a large ball of energy in its mouth. Just as it fired Orihime threw up a large, golden shield. The energy blast made direct contact with the shield, but the energy fazed out as it made contact. Ichigo, then leapt over her head and with one swing of his blade brought the hollow down. Then Uryu, stepped in, holding his arms up as if holding a bow and arrow, and that's just what appeared in his arms: the bow was tall and black and white, the arrow was made of pure energy glowing blue. He fired the arrow at the remaining hollow destroying it wholly.

Ichigo returned to his body, Orihime's shield came down and Uryu's bow and arrow vanished.

". . . Well, that was impressive," Dad said.

"I'm still not sure about what just happened," Keiko said.

"We just got attacked by two Menos Grandes," Ichigo said.

"It's unusual that they'd show up," Chad said. "Even with the increased levels of attacks that have been happening."

"Especially here in West City," Ichigo said.

That was when the smell of cigarette smoke filled my nostrils.


	7. We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off

_**Chapter Seven: We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off to Have a Good Time**_

"What I wouldn't give to not have to spend my time spelling out the obvious to a bunch of children," a raspy voice said.

I recognized it immediately. I turned and saw Genkai had arrived. With her were Master Roshi and a taller mad wearing a long black cloak with white diamonds going across the bottom over dark green pants a shirt. His hair was blond and messy and covered by a striped green and white hat.

"Mister Hat-and-Clogs?" Ichigo said.

"That can't be his real name," I said. "Although with the hat and the clogs I get it. Not really a fan of the clogs though. The cloak is cool though. Mister Hat-and-Cloak is better."

Master Roshi chuckled. "Your genetics are really shining through there, Genkai."

"Shut up, you old fool. That's the spawn of your most accomplished student after all," Genkai said.

"Are one of you going to tell us what's going on or is this conversation going to slowly dissolve into one of those 'back in my day, we walked up hill in the snow both ways to get to and from school' kind of things?" Ichigo asked.

"You've got a real smart mouth kid. No wonder Kairi likes you," Genkai said

I went to complain, but then realized she might've actually had a point so I kept my mouth shut.

"This is Genkai, and that's Master Roshi," Kurama said. "I trust, Kairi's told you about them."

"Yep! It's nice to finally meet you!" Orihime said.

"And this is Kisuke Urahara," Ichigo said.

"So you're a soul reaper too, huh?" Kuwabara asked.

"Yes, I am," Urahara said. "Though I mostly leave it up to Ichigo to handle the hard stuff these days. I'm getting on in years after all."

"I hate to be repetitive, but is anyone from the geriatric division going to tell us what's going on?" Vegeta asked.

"I thought geriatric was overweight people?" I asked.

"That's bariatric," Ichigo corrected me.

"Ah," I said.

"You asked why you got attacked by two Menos Grandes," Urahara said.

"It's obviously because this the largest collection of Spiritual Pressure outside of Karakura Town. The last time there was a concentration of energy this high in one place was when they opened that tunnel," Uryu said.

"Correct as always Uryu," Kisuke said.

"But if I might interject, the level of Spirit Energy here isn't really enough to warrant _two_ Menos, at least not with everyone's energy suppressed the way it is at the moment," Kurama said.

"And that's why you're my favorite, Shuichi. No stupid questions. Only honest to goodness observations," Genkai said.

"Hey, I'm your student. Shouldn't I be your favorite?" Yusuke asked.

"Quiet, dimwit. This is important," Genkai said.

"The Menos Grande aren't like normal hollow. They come into existence when a hollow is no longer able to survive on devouring human souls and they start consuming other hollows," Urahara said. "The Menos we were just visited by are the Menos Grande, also called Gillian class hollow. They're big and pretty strong, but they're also slow and stupid. They don't move out of Hueco Mundo unless they sense a large power level as Uryu pointed out, or unless they're enticed into moving," Urahara said.

"Someone made those things attack my house?" Bulma asked.

"I doubt your house was the target. The concentration of energy here was just so massive that this is the first place they wanted to come to. But someone definitely wanted them out of Hueco Mundo," Genkai said.

"And who would that be?" Hiei asked.

"Only other hollows are going to get them to move," Urahara said.

"So, something's prompted the more powerful hollows to order the weaker Menos to move?" Chad asked.

"Exactly. They're running away from something," Genkai said.

". . . Does this have something to do with all the ghosts?" Dad asked.

"Who'd have thought that Goku would be the one to bring us to the most important portion of the story," Master Roshi said.

"Certainly not me," I said.

"The ghosts are appearing because there's an imbalance of souls in both the Living World and the Soul Society," Genkai said.

". . . Isn't that, like, really super bad?" I asked.

"Yes, Kairi. That's really super bad," Uryu said.

"Don't make me hit you, Quincy-boy; I can tell when I'm being talked down to," I said.

"Shocking," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Shut up, Fish Penis," I said.

"Will you two stop for five seconds? You'll have plenty of time to play like you're in second grade when they're done," Kurama said.

"I'm sorry, how can there be an imbalance of souls or whatever?" Yusuke asked.

"There always has to be a certain number of souls in existence for there to be balance, not just in the Living World but in the Soul Society and Spirit World as well. If there were too many souls in the Living World things would get crazy which is why Spirit World ferries them away and why the Soul Society has their Soul Reapers, because they maintain the balance. If there are too many souls here then things get out of whack," Master Roshi said.

"So that's why things are getting crazy, because Strawberry Fields Forever over here needs to put in some over time?" Yusuke asked, motioning to Ichigo.

"Do _not_ call him that," I scolded him.

"As much as we'd love to pin the blame on Ichigo, it's got nothing to do with him," Urahara said. "The other reason there would be an imbalance would be because-."

"There aren't enough souls inexistence," Ichigo said. "Like with the Quincies."

"Yep, but unless Uryu's been more trigger happy than usual lately, I don't see us blaming this on the Quincies," Urahara said.

"So what is causing it?" Hiei asked.

"No idea," Master Roshi said.

"Well, that's helpful. You old guys always show up warning us all about how dangerous things are without telling us what we need to do," Yusuke whined.

"Maybe if you pulled your head out of your ass every once in a while and actually used your brain to think for once, you might figure things out without someone holding your hand," Genkai said.

"And by that I think she means the Soul Society hasn't come by to say anything about it and Spirit World isn't talking to us so we're going to be sitting here wondering until someone decides to tell us what's going on," I said.

"Yes, Kairi. Things are getting serious and I'd be shocked if the Soul Society didn't send someone to confer with Ichigo in the next few days," Genkai said.

"Hopefully they have a better idea of what's going on than we do," Urahara said.

"I think we're all hopeful for that," Yusuke said.

888

My original plan had been to return to Kurama's house and spend the evening there with Keiko and Yukina who had already requested a sleep over. But everyone loves Orihime and so she was immediately added to our shindig. Kuwabara and Yusuke immediately invited themselves over and Hiei was "forced" over as well.

As for Bulma's house it would be, for the next few days, occupied by the Z Fighters until things in Spirit World were sorted out.

Having little else to do, Keiko decided that she agreed with my mother and that my hair was out of control and needed to be cut. Deciding that the very least I could to do was cut it if I was going to keep bleaching it, I gave in. Keiko insisted that I wash it first so it was wet when she cut it and I complied.

They were waiting in my room while I washed my hair. Keiko was probably filling them in on every humiliating thing I'd ever done in my life and giving them detailed explanations of the pictures on my mirror. It was good to have friends who wanted to make sure that all of my friends were in on my humiliation.

I walked out of the bathroom, my towel tucked tightly around me and opened my bedroom door.

". . . so she kept telling people she wanted to be a prostitute for about three years and no one corrected her," Keiko was saying.

"Telling them all about your adventures in being an asshole to me in grade school," I said.

"Sure am. Do you have a comb for your hair?" Keiko asked.

"It's in the bathroom somewhere," I said. "I'll be right back." Yukina got up to close the door behind me.

I walked back into the bathroom and searched around for my solitary comb. I hardly used because it couldn't handle the amount of hair that I had. I held my towel tightly around me as I knelt down to look in the cabinet, finding it in basket where Shiori kept her hair stuff.

I pulled the comb out and went to walk back into my room, but the door wouldn't open.

"Hey unlock the door," I said.

I listened to them jiggle the hand from the other side and then I heard something snap.

"Uh oh," Keiko said.

"What?" I asked.

"The handle didn't fall off," Orihime said.

I sighed and rested my head against the door.

"Excellent," I said.

"Do you have a screwdriver in here somewhere?" Orihime asked. "I can get it open if you do. I'm super handy."

"Yeah, there's one in there somewhere. Probably in my desk," I said.

"Hold on. We will rescue you in a moment," Orihime said.

"I'm cold and my hair is dripping," I said.

"Stop whining," Keiko said.

I wrapped my arms around myself to keep myself warm as I heard someone coming up the stairs. I glanced over, assuming that it was Kurama. I saw the red hair and turned back to my door, but a red flag went up in my head. The person on the stairs stopped when they reached the landing. My brain took a moment to register what exactly I'd seen that was wrong.

Short hair and not red. Orange. Short orange hair.

There were only two people I knew with short, orange hair and one of them was already in Kurama's room.

I looked over and there stood Ichigo. I looked back at my door. There was truly evil at work here.

"What are you guys doing?" I asked.

"Keep your pants on," Keiko said.

"She's wearing pants. It's a shirt she's missing," Yukina said.

"Your room is so cluttered. How can you find anything?" Orihime asked.

"Sorry. I didn't-." Ichigo started.

"If you don't mind me asking, Ichigo, why are you in my house?" I asked.

"I called you from the clinic when I got home. I left my cell phone. You said you had it," he said.

"Oh, right. I forgot because I'm mourning the loss of my hair," I said. Ichigo's face was completely red and he was staring at his feet. "You really shouldn't be so embarrassed right now. You're not the one shirtless in the towel locked out of your room after all."

"You don't see yourself in a towel very often do you?" he asked, still staring at his feet.

"No. I don't usually hangout in front of mirrors while shirtless," I said.

I looked back at my door. You could cut the awkward sexual tension with a knife. "For the love of all that's sacred have you found it yet?"

"Yes! Hold on," Orihime said.

"So why are you loitering in the hallway?" he asked.

"The girls broke my doorknob and Orihime is currently trying to fix it," I said. "Why are you loitering in my hallway?"

"Because you're in the hallway in a towel and you're locked out of your room and I don't really have anywhere else to be since my phone's probably in your room," he said. He turned his back to my bedroom door so he wasn't looking at me directly anymore. "So I'm just gonna stand right here until you get my phone."

I smiled. "You're adorable."

"Nah. Just a bit old fashioned I guess," he said.

"You say potato, I say tomato," I said.

Ichigo chuckled. "That's not how that saying goes."

"Was I close?" I asked.

"Very close," he said. "Gold star for trying."

I looked Ichigo over, standing there bashfully, his face red. He was so cute. It was kind of unfair. I was supposed to be the cute one and yet here he was, being all gentlemanly and whatnot. Not cool.

Only one way to fix that.

"Ichigo," I said stepping over to him, "I'm going to do something that's going to make you uncomfortable."

"Pretty sure that ship's already sailed," he said.

I giggled. "Then this should be pretty painless."

I took another step closer to him, hugging my towel tighter to myself. I pushed myself up on my toes and I kissed him. He was hesitant at first, and I didn't blame him—I was a wet, naked, girl in a towel after all. But after a second or two, he relaxed. He even went so far as to place his hand on my shoulder and pull me closer, ignoring my damp skin and wet hair.

I dropped down to my feet, breaking the kiss.

"That wasn't so bad was it?" I asked. He leaned down and kissed me once more.

"I guess not," he said. "Except wet hair feels gross."

"Keiko's cutting it all off if I ever get back inside my room," I said.

"How short?" he asked.

"Just past my shoulders," I said.

"I think that's a good length for you," he said.

"I hate to break it to you, Shinigami, but your opinion doesn't matter. I'm not cutting my hair for you," I said.

"Oh, you're doing it for yourself," he said.

"Nope. For my mom," I said with a chuckle. "I wonder what's taking them so long."

"They got the door open a long time ago. They just saw you two swapping spit and decided not to disturb you."

I glanced over and Hiei was standing in Kurama's doorway, a stolid look on his face as usual.

"We don't need an audience, Hiei," I said.

"Actually, Kuwabara has to pee and you're blocking the bathroom and we sent Hiei to tell you to move because Kuwabara didn't want to tell you to move," Yusuke said peeking his head out the door. "Nice towel by the way. You're well on your way to joining the 'I've seen Kairi Son Naked Club.'"

"What?" Ichigo asked.

"Hey, Ichigo, let's get you that cell phone," I said opening my door.

I quickly grabbed his cell phone from my desk and handed it to him.

"Kurosaki, the first official meeting of the 'I've Seen Kairi Son Naked Club' is meeting to watch me try to redeem myself in Goblin City if you would like to join us," Yusuke said.

"No, but seriously, what are they talking about?" Ichigo asked.

"Oh, so Kairi doesn't tell you everything," Yusuke said grabbing him. "Boy do I have some hilarious stories to tell you." He pulled him into Kurama's room and closed the door.

"You should definitely be worried," Keiko said.

"You are incredibly encouraging," I said.

"We were wondering why you got so quiet and when we got the door open, we saw you were. . . busy," Keiko said. I stuck my tongue out at her. "I'll go run some interference for you while I see if your cousin has a not crummy pair of scissors."

"And I'll get some drinks," Yukina said.

The girls left Orihime and me in my room. I sat in my desk chair shivering.

"I am cold," I said.

"Cause of the hair," Orihime said poking at my blanket with a blank look on his face.

"You okay?" I asked.

She looked up at me and smiled widely, as if she hadn't been staring at my sheets in a daze.

"I'm okay!" she said cheerfully.

She was always doing that. Every once in a while she would zone out and get really quiet and seemed to retreat into her head like something was bothering her. When I'd ask her what was wrong she would behave as if it was nothing. Whatever it was she didn't want to talk about it, so I didn't press her about it.

"I see you put the handle back on. You're quite handy," I said changing thesubject.

"Oh, I have to be. I live on my own," Orihime said. "That's how I can cook so well."

"I'm not even sure why I own a screwdriver," I said.

"So I could rescue you from the hallway," Orihime said.

"Foresight—I like it," I said.

"Sorry everyone saw you in the towel," she said.

"Worse has happened. At least I'm wearing pants," I said. "Never a dull moment."

Keiko entered the room, a pair of scissors in her hand.

"You ready to do this?" she asked.

"Nope," I said.

"Oh, it'll be fine," Keiko said. "It was fine when I cut my hair."

"You had to cut your hair because half of it got singed in an apartment fire," I said, as Yukina returned. "I like my long hair. Orihime and I won't be twins anymore once I cut it."

"Orihime looks like she's never cut her hair a day in her life," Keiko said.

"I did, once," Orihime said. "In middle school. But I don't cut it anymore."

"I made my mom stop cutting my hair in sixth grade," I said. "Demons don't take you seriously if you're a girl with a bowl cut."

"They probably didn't take you seriously because you were a little kid," Keiko said patting me on the head.

"That too," I said.

"Do you need someone to hold your hand?" Keiko asked. "Haircuts can be traumatic."

"Just do it," I said.

Keiko nodded.

SNIP. SNIP. SNIP.

"No turning back now," Keiko said.

"Why don't you cut your hair anymore, Orihime?" Yukina asked.

"Because. . . I always liked my hair and was really proud of how different it was. But when I got into middle school there were girls in my class that didn't like my hair color and they attacked me with scissors and cut it, so I had to cut it short after that. My brother asked me why I cut it, but I didn't tell him. Then he bought me these." Orihime motioned to her hair pins. "I didn't want to wear them because I thought they were childish and silly. I didn't want another reason for them to pick on me. . . But then that same day my brother died in a car accident. . . I was alone after that and I stopped talking, even at school. . . But then I met Tatsuki and she pulled me out of my shell. I decided after that to stop cutting my hair and grow it out long as a sign of my faith in Tatsuki, who always protected me."

Silence. Dead silence.

"That's really sad. I mean that's beautiful what you said about your friend, but. . . That's really sad," Keiko said.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring the mood down," Orihime said.

"It's okay. Sometimes it's good to talk about the bad stuff," Yukina said. "And I asked you why you didn't cut your hair didn't I?"

"Might not have been the answer we were expecting, but an answer it was," I said, listening as Keiko continued to snip at my head. "My head feels different. Lighter."

"You must not be aware of how much hair you have," Keiko said. "Would you be interested in a mullet?"

"Don't make me fight you, Yukimura," I said. She chuckled.

"I'm almost done. I just need to even you out a bit," Keiko said.

"I like it shorter. You look less burdened," Orihime said.

Keiko turned me to look in my mirror. "Tah-dah. Done. How'd I do?"

"You did fine. . . Although I'm more aware of how much I look like my mother," I said.

Keiko took my hair and twisted it up into a bun. "Hmm. I still say you favor your dad more." She let my hair go and it fell down just past my shoulders and stopped. "You're still pretty though."

"Baby, I know," I said with a wink. I got to my feet and looked down to my floor. "I'm going to put a shirt on and then get something to clean up all this hair with."

"In retrospect wet hair on a carpet was not our best idea," Keiko said getting up and going to my dresser.

"But Kairi has to clean it up, so it's okay," Orihime said. I pulled a shirt out and quickly pulled it on.

"Speaking of Kairi and cleaning, did she ever tell about how she made Uryu transfer out of our elementary school?" Keiko asked.

"Ewe. Leaving now," I said. I tossed my towel aside and walked out of my room, and downstairs to the kitchen. I opened the kitchen closet and pulled out the broom.

"Finally dressed I see." I frowned at the voice and turned back to glare at Hiei.

"Leave it to you to comment on the fact that I have clothes on and not about my hair being gone," I said.

"One was more obvious than the other," he said.

I rolled my eyes. "You're just jealous because I never kissed you while wearing a towel," I said.

"You're right. Maybe the memory of it happening while taking your pants off will comfort me," he said sarcastically.

I felt my whole face go red as the memory came flooding back to me.

"I suppose I set myself up for that one didn't I?" I asked. He nodded.

"Could you perhaps do me favor and not bring that up while my aunt is in the house? I know she's sleeping, but she's got mom ears."

"Sure," he said.

"And. . .You didn't mention that in front of Ichigo do you?" I asked.

"Why?" Hiei asked.

"You know damn well why," I said.

Hiei nodded. "I see."

"I'm just saying. You were always so rude to Trunks and Ichigo's fuse is even shorter than his and I know you like to harass people just to harass them," I said. "I just don't know why you're so easily put off by people I seem to be dating."

I stared at Hiei for a long moment, waiting for him to answer.

"Maybe you just have bad taste," he said.

I frowned at him. "You do realize that I liked you right? Are you saying that was in bad taste?"

"Probably," he said. I frowned at him. This guy had an answer for everything.

"I think you acted like that with Trunks because you liked me too," I said.

"Please," Hiei scoffed.

"Part of you had to," I said. "I mean, otherwise none of that stuff that happened between us would have happened, right?"

And so I waited for him to answer again, this time to deny his feelings for me like, he had done before. Lying so he could prove that he didn't care.

"Any attraction that I had toward then," he said, "was purely physical."

I glared at him. "That's nice. Because every girl wants to hear 'I only wanted you for your body.'"

"I didn't mean-."

"That's what you said, so unless you were lying to me. . ." I paused again, waiting for him to change his story, but he said nothing. "Either you're an asshole or a liar, Hiei. Which is it?"

He turned away from me, preparing to leave the kitchen before he answered. "Asshole."


	8. There is Always Something Going On

_[A/N: Hello, all! I wrote and Eizou Hakusho chapter to go hand in hand with this and I'll be posting it shortly, so keep an eye out for it. Don't forget to review!]_

_**Chapter Eight: There is Always Something Going On**_

The rest of my weekend was quiet and mostly uneventful. I'd made plans to see Ichigo on Sunday, but because of the ever exploding Hollow population, it didn't happen. Monday when I got to school, Ichigo was sitting at his desk with Chad and Uryu, just staring out the window while they engaged in conversation.

I walked over to him and tapped his shoulder. He looked up at me. He was obviously tired.

"Hey, sorry, I didn't call you last night," he said.

"It's fine," I said. "You look exhausted. Were you busy yesterday?"

"Yeah," Ichigo said.

"And no one's come to tell you what's going on yet?" I asked.

"Nope. I'm guessing Spirit World isn't saying much either," he said.

"Correct. It's all up to you, I'm afraid," I said.

"Well, I'm taking a break today. I'm wiped," he said. "Af-san can handle things for today. He's always complaining about me anyway."

"Af-san?" I asked.

"He's the Soul Reaper who replaced Rukia," Ichigo said. "I don't remember his real name, but he has an afro."

I shook my head. "I bet he hates you." Ichigo nodded. "And I bet he reminds you of his name every time you see him."

"Something like that," Ichigo said with a yawn.

"And I'm sure you think both of those things are completely unrelated," I said.

". . . I think so," he said.

I shook my head. Poor oblivious Ichigo.

888

"I can't," I said dropping my face down onto my notebook. Math homework. I'd fought demons and psychopaths and aliens, but math, that was my real arch nemesis.

"You can. Don't be so over dramatic," Ichigo said scribbling down his answers on his bed. I frowned at him from his desk. He looked up at me. "What?"

I held up my textbook and showed him. "It's the scalene triangle, Ichigo."

"So it is," he said.

"Look at it. It's so. . . _scalene._ It's mocking me with all its. . . scaleneyness," I said.

Ichigo stared at me for a moment before looking back to his homework.

"You worry me sometimes," he said as I sat my book back down.

"Scalene," I said. "It's so scalene."

"Stop saying scalene," he said.

"_Scalene,_" I said. He looked up and glared at me. I smiled. "Please help me."

"I think you're beyond help, Kairi Son," Ichigo said.

"Please? I'm tired of Uryu laughing at me every time I fail a test," I said. "I won't fail if you help me. I keep looking at this triangle and I want to vomit. Then I look at the formula to find the area and it makes me so dizzy which just makes me want to throw up."

Ichigo sighed and sat his books aside. "Come here." I took my math book and sat next to him on the bed. He pointed at the formula. "This is called Heron's Formula. It's not even that hard. You're just lazy and unmotivated."

"Doing things is hard if you're lazy and unmotivated, especially if 'things' is math and it involves thinking," I said.

Ichigo sighed, obviously getting slightly annoyed with me, and pointed to one of the triangles. "What is the perimeter?"

I laid my head on his shoulder. "That's just when you add all the sides together?"

"Yes," he said.

"So, it's 24," I said.

"Right," he said. "Your hair smells nice."

"Thanks. It's vanilla and sugar, not that I think sugar has a smell, but whatever," I said. "It makes my hair smell nice."

"It's soft too," he said running his fingers through it. "I do like the haircut."

"You sure? I'm still having some regrets for my super long hair. I'm also still sweeping it off my bedroom floor," I said.

"It's good. It's different," he said. He kissed the top of my head. I turned my head and kissed him.

I really had intended to leave it at that, but there was this really funny thing about kisses. They were addictive. A small a kiss always made me want just one more, which led to another, and then a few more. Eventually, it stopped being playful and cute and each kiss lasted longer and longer, each one becoming fueled more by lust.

We ignored my math book as it clattered to the ground. We shifted into a more comfortable position lying back on his bed. Usually we were careful not to descend so far into this state, but with our only other obligations currently being homework, and with Yuzu and Isshin at Karin's soccer game it seemed that all caution had been thrown to the wind, and I didn't mind.

His fingers were still in my hair, tugging slightly tighter as we deepened each kiss, pulling us closer together. I gripped his back tightly as the intensity of each kiss grew. It was like I couldn't hold him tight enough or have him close enough. Each kiss was pushing me further and further and nothing could satisfy me.

Ichigo's hand was on my thigh and slowly creeping upwards. He stopped when he got to the hem of my skirt. My heart was racing, I could heard blood coursing through my ears. I kissed him more fiercely, hoping to distract myself from his hand, but that wasn't helping.

And then Ichigo moved from my lips and worked his way slowly down to my neck. A pleasant fuzziness started to fill my head and my desire for not only his lips began to grow, but my want for the rest of him did as well.

That familiar tingling sensation began to build between my legs and I brought Ichigo's lips back to mine, trying as hard as I could to not let the feeling overtake me. But Ichigo and I weren't on the same page.

His hand slipped under my skirt ever so slightly, but the move had obviously been intentional, like he'd done it to gauge my reaction. I let out a slight hum, and moved one of my hands up to slide my fingers through his hair. This was all the permission he needed as he slowly began to continue making its way upward.

I grabbed a fistful of his hair and tugged at it tightly as his hand reached my panties. He hesitated, and I knew he would, debating on whether or not he wanted things to go this far. I couldn't be mad if he changed his mind, but I sincerely hoped he didn't.

Ichigo took upon himself to venture forth, much to my relief. His fingers brushed over the fabric at my bikini line and he traced it down between my legs, causing my whole body to shudder under his touch. He took his thumb and ran it over my slit, and a slight whimper crawled out of my throat. He repeated this movement several more times causing me to hold onto him tighter.

I could feel Ichigo growing hard against my leg. I moved my hand down and gently caressed him through his slacks. He let out a groan in response. I unbuckled his belt and was met with no protests as I undid the button of his pants.

Ichigo hooked his finger under the elastic of my underwear and went to pull them off.

"Ichigo, you need to get to. . . Oh."

The most painful silence of my life enveloped the room as Ichigo broke our kiss and his hand moved from under my skirt. I turned my head ever so slightly to look at the foot of the bed where the voice had come from. There was a tall red haired man standing there, black sunglasses perched on his forehead. He was clad completely in black.

Another soul reaper.

"What the hell are you doing here, Renji?! Don't you people believe in privacy or doors or knocking?! You just show up in my house like I'm never busy and never have company! Like I don't have a life or something!" Ichigo scolded him.

"I didn't know you were entertaining a lady friend. I would've waited until you were, er, finished," the man said seeming slightly amused. Suddenly he covered his mouth. "You just yelled at me and she probably doesn't even know I'm here."

"Oh, I can see you. This is humiliating for all parties present," I said as Ichigo moved from atop me. I sat up and then got to my feet and started to adjust myself. "I'm Kairi Son."

"Oh! The former Spirit Detective. I've heard of you," he said. "I'm Renji Abarai. Lieutenant of squad six of the 13 Court Guard Squads."

"Are you going to tell me what you're doing here?" Ichigo asked.

"There's kind of a situation and you need to get down to Kisuke's right now," he said.

Ichigo sighed. "Fine just give me a minute."

Renji nodded and stepped out into Ichigo's hallway, closing the door behind himself.

"I'm so sorry about that," Ichigo said.

"It's okay. I'm sure more humiliating things have happened than this," I said.

"No. I really can't think of anything," he said.

"Yeah me either," I said packing my school things away. "How likely is it that I'll see Renji again?" I asked.

"Very likely," he said.

"Right. Okay," I said. "I'll just go home then. Let me know what the hell is going on."

"I will," he said. I walked up to him and kissed him. "Be careful going home. Walk, don't fly. You don't need to draw any unnecessary to yourself."

"Okay," I said, kissing him once more. "I'll see you later then."

I grabbed my book bag and opened his bedroom door. Renji was still standing there, trying not to appear as awkward and embarrassed as he probably was.

"Lieutenant Abarai was it?" I asked.

"Uh, yeah," he said, going red in the face.

"Until we meet again," I said.

He nodded and I walked down the stairs and out of his house. I'd hoped the fresh air would wash the humiliation away, but alas, this was not the case.

I started my walk home and tried not to think about it and hoped Ichigo wouldn't get too much crap from his Soul Reaper buddies for what Renji saw, but if his friends were anything like mine that wasn't going to be the case. At the very least I could be grateful that it was Renji and not Isshin, which probably would've been worse.

Halfway back to Kurama's house a bad feeling over took me. I stopped walking and looked around. I was next to the park, which was deserted. That wasn't unusual considering that it was starting to get chilly out, but the rest of the street was also deserted. No cars, no people, not even birds or stray cats or squirrels.

And then I sensed it.

Any Hollow was bad news considering that I was completely useless against one, but this one was stronger than average, which was even worse.

I kept walking, hoping that maybe my presence would go unnoticed.

Wishful thinking.

An arm sprang from the trees in the park and reached out toward me. I leapt out of the way and the creature crawled out in front of me.

Ichigo had said that the stronger Hollows were usually more intelligent, but this one seemed just as brainless and stupid as the rest usually did.

I knew that Ichigo was probably with Kisuke by now, and Uryu, Chad, and Orihime would be there as well. The appearance of Renji meant that the amount Soul Reapers in Karakura Town had probably increased as well, but none of them seemed to be nearby at the moment.

I could either run, and it would chase me without a doubt and probably put other people in danger. Or I could stay here and take my chances and hope someone showed up.

The Hollow came at me again and I jumped behind its head, landing on the sidewalk behind it. I dashed into the park and it followed. I jumped into a tree. It wandered around below the tree searching around for me. It could tell I was there, but couldn't find me.

This was really strange. Hollows tended to be on the dumber side at times, I'd been told, but they were always very good a finding a meal. Suppressing my energy or not, a Hollow should've been able to find me in a second. And the vibe I was getting from this thing was just weird. I'd sensed Hollows all the time now that I'd gone to school in Karakura Town, but this thing felt off somehow from the norm.

Finally it looked up into the tree and spotted me. It lunged forward for me and I leapt down from the tree.

"Move, Detective!"

The sky started grow dark and the air turned cold. I didn't know where the voice was coming from or even recognize it in the slightest, but I didn't want to question whoever it was.

I jumped back toward the grassier area of the park. The Hollow turned to follow me, but before it could even move forward, a large dragon made of ice came forth and engulfed the Hollow.

I nodded. Impressive.

I watched as the Soul Reaper responsible for this walked forward from the trees. He was small—very small, almost childlike. He had spiky white hair, and bright blue eyes. He had a green sash going across his chest holding the sheath for his Zanpakto on his back. His robes were all black, similar to Ichigo and Renji's, but over it he wore a white haori.

"Detective Son," he said.

"Former Detective now. Just Kairi," I said. "And you are?"

"Toshiro Hitsugaya, Captain of Squad 10," he said.

"Thanks for that," I said.

The Captain went to say something, but our attention was taken from our conversation as we felt a spike in energy from the trees. The Hollow crawled out of the trees, but it was different than when it had attacked before. The hole in its chest had gone. And I finally realized what it was that had felt off about it.

"Impossible," Toshiro said.

"Excuse me, Captain," I said stepping in front of him. I charged up for a Spirit Gun.

Demon energy. That's what was different. Hiding beneath all that Spirit Energy that Hollow was giving off, there was Demon Energy.

I fired off the Spirit Gun at the monster, destroying it immediately.

"A demon," I said.

"A demon that's also a Hollow," Toshiro said. "I'm beginning to understand why we were told to come here."

"We noticed a week ago things were weird. What is your intelligence team doing?" I asked.

Toshiro glared at me. "You must be friends with Ichigo."

I smiled. "Something like that."

888

I alerted the rest of my team to the situation and went to Kisuke's.

Hiei, Kurama, Kuwabara, and Yusuke were arriving just as Toshiro and I did.

"Kairi, you know you can't just go around picking up stray children," Yusuke said.

Toshiro glared at him.

"Yusuke, this _Captain _Toshiro Hitsugaya. These are my friends, Yusuke, the other former detective, Kurama, Hiei, and Kuwabara," I said.

"Yes. I've heard a lot about the five of you over the past few months," Toshiro said as we walked inside. "Especially the events surrounding the tunnel."

"Speaking of which, we were actually quite surprised the Soul Society didn't get involved when they decided they wanted to get rid of Yusuke," Kurama said.

"What the Spirit World does with its employees is its own business. Besides, it wasn't as if you posed any threat to us," Toshiro said.

"I wish King Yemma was as reasonable as you," Yusuke said.

". . . I wouldn't say that," I said. "I know the Soul Society has a history. Like with the mod souls or the Quincies or the-."

"I think you've proved your point, Detective," Toshiro said.

"It's Kairi. I'm not the Detective anymore," I said.

We finally stumbled upon Ichigo, Renji, and Kisuke. With them were a very and tall, dark skinned man with cornrows, a handlebar mustache, wearing sunglasses, and a woman, obviously a soul reaper, who was also tall with strawberry blonde hair, with the largest set of breasts I had ever seen in my life.

"Ah, you've finally made it. Sadly our other guests haven't arrived yet," Kisuke said.

"Your. . . Your. . ." Yusuke started staring at the woman.

"Yes I'm a Soul Reaper as well," the woman said.

"Yeah, that's what I was gonna say," Yusuke said.

"Good to see you again, Kairi. You don't look so disgruntled," Renji said.

"Will you shut up and leave her alone!" Ichigo scolded him, whacking him on the head.

"Hey, what'd you do that for?!" Renji said returning him the hit.

This slowly dissolved into a miniature wrestling match during which Renji and Ichigo continued to shout at each.

"Will you two stop fooling around?" Toshiro asked.

"Why did he say you looked disgruntled?" Kurama asked.

"Don't ask," I said, feeling myself flush again.

"These are the former Spirit Detectives and their friends: Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei, Kuwabara and Kairi," Kisuke said. "This is Rangiku Motsumoto, lieutenant of Squad 10 with Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya. This is Tessai who helps me around the shop. And this is Renji lieutenant of Squad six, although, Kairi it sounds like you two have already met."

I continued to feel myself flush as I nodded.

"Why is your face so red?" Yusuke asked.

"I thought I already said don't ask," I said.

Renji nudged Rangiku. "She's Ichigo's girlfriend."

Rangiku gasped and brought her hands to her mouth. "Is she really?! But she's so pretty!"

"Why did you say she's pretty like that, like I wouldn't be dating someone who's pretty?" Ichigo asked.

"Well, you're so rude all of the time, Ichigo. Ugly, pretty, tall, short what girl would want to date you?" Rangiku asked. "What is your appeal, Ichigo?" Rangiku looked over at me. "Well, sweetheart?"

"Oh, that wasn't a rhetorical question?" I asked.

"Well, between you and me, I'm just curious," Rangiku said walking over to me. She put her arm around me. "So tell me, why Ichigo?"

"Um. . ." I started, "I don't know. I just. . . Like all of him."

Renji mumbled something under his breath which prompted Ichigo to start beating him again.

"I think it's because he has the sword," Yusuke said.

"Do you really think I'm that shallow, that I would base my interest in someone solely on whether or not they had a sword?" I asked.

"I dunno, Kairi. I mean think about all the guys you liked and how many of them had swords," Kuwabara said with a nod. "All of them."

"Coincidence," I said.

"Or your subconscious is telling you like boys with swords," Kurama said, jokingly.

"Don't encourage them. They'll actually believe you," I said.

"Oh, come on. Saying everything isn't an answer," Rangiku said. "There has to be something."

". . . I guess, it's that he's really nice," I said.

Rangiku looked over to Ichigo beating Renji then back at me.

"Well, he's nice to me at least. I mean, he has a temper obviously, and sure he can be rude and disrespectful-."

"But these are all qualities Kairi looks for in a man," Yusuke said. I smacked him upside his head.

"Ichigo is a nice guy. Before we were dating he'd walk me home and if it was raining he'd always share his umbrella with me because I never wear a coat and I don't own an umbrella. And if anyone he knows is in a bad mood or going through something he's always the first to ask what's wrong and if someone's okay and he always tries to put them in a good mood because he doesn't like seeing people upset. And he's so devoted to being a Soul Reaper and protecting people and that's just so great," I said. "There aren't a lot of guys like Ichigo."

"Clearly," Yusuke chuckled.

"She's gonna hit you again and I'm not gonna stop her," Kurama said.

"You make him sound so sweet," Rangiku said. "Maybe he's just putting on a show for you."

"I'm not just putting on a show for her! Will you stop telling her things like that?!" Ichigo shouted.

"As interesting as I'm sure Ichigo's love life is, we have something more important to discuss," Toshiro said, obviously getting irritated with how things were unfolding.

"Sorry, Captain, I'm just trying to figure this all out," Rangiku said.

"It's not really that difficult to wrap your head around," Ichigo said.

"Well, the matter at hand is," Toshiro said, still struggling to push on. "On our way here, Kairi and I encountered something strange."

"Oh, right! I almost forgot," I said. "I was going by the park on my way home and this Hollow came out of nowhere and it was kind of weird. It was stronger than most of the Hollows I've sensed before and the energy it was giving off was strange. But more than that it was stupid. I remembered you saying that the stronger Hollows usually have some kind of intelligence, but it was just not bright. It was almost feral. That's when the Captain showed up."

"I used Hyorinmaru to dispatch the Hollow," Toshiro explained, "but it didn't work. Not completely."

"Not completely?" Renji asked.

"It got back up, but it wasn't a Hollow and then I realized what was weird about it—Demon Energy," I said.

"Demon Energy? You mean it was a demon?" Ichigo asked.

"Definitely a demon, but definitely also a Hollow," I said.

"What you're saying is impossible," Kurama said.

"I'd agree, except I saw it myself," Toshiro said.

"How does something like that happen?" Yusuke asked.

"I think I can provide you with some answers."

I looked back and saw that Rukia had arrived, though she had not been the one who'd spoken. With her was a tall man, or I assumed it was a man at least. He was dressed as a Soul Reaper, the same garb Toshrio wore so I assumed he was a captain, but he also wore a large purple scarf around his neck. His face was painted black in the center, with the border of it being white. There were golden cones on his chin and his ears. He had a large white hat on his head that jutted off pointing to the right. His hands were white as well, and his finger nails were blue and short, except the middle right one which was exceptionally long.

Standing next to him was a smaller woman with green eyes and black hair. Behind them were Orihime, Uryu, and Chad.

"Ah. So you're here finally," Kisuke said. "I was wondering how much longer we were going to have to fill up our time embarrassing Kairi and Ichigo here." I rolled my eyes. "Lady and gentlemen, may I introduce Captain of squad twelve, Mayuri Kurotsuchi and his lieutenant, Nemu. This is-."

"Kairi Son, age 15. Half human, half Saiyan, former Spirit Detective," he said.

"Um, I'm sorry, I don't like when people have been looking me up," I said.

"Well you're so intriguing that I had to. The anatomy of a super Saiyan like yourself is probably fascinating," he said.

"Anatomy? What?" I asked.

"And not just you—Yusuke Urameshi, also 15, also former Spirit Detective, a half breed with the Mazoku gene. Fascinating."

"I'm gonna go stand over here where it's less weird," I said going to stand by Ichigo.

"Good idea," Uryu said.

"Mayuri is head of research and development," Kisuke said.

"Ah, I see. So you're just a curious scientist," Kurama said.

"And also creepy. No offense," Yusuke said.

"None taken," Mayuri said.

"It's good to see you again, Rukia," I said.

"You too, Kairi, though I wish the circumstances were different," she said.

"Likewise," Kurama said.

"So about this creature Kairi and I encountered," Toshiro said. "Can you explain what it was?"

"I certainly can. I created them after all," Mayuri said. "They're hybrids of demons and Hollows. I thought to myself one day, what would happen if I fused the two together and if it were possible, and it was. The creatures were powerful, but also lacked intelligence and but could easily be manipulated into following orders. . . but one day they got loose from my lab and I couldn't find them."

"They got out and you couldn't find them?" Hiei asked, the disbelief apparent in his voice.

"Are you serious?" I asked. "How do you still have a job? That kind of negligence is unacceptable where I come from."

"Well, they never popped back up so I assumed they weren't a problem," Mayuri said.

"Well, nobody thought Shinobu Sensui was a problem either until he popped up spouting off about the end of the world," Yusuke said.

"And now all these souls are disappearing and suddenly your little science projects have popped back up and I am a little suspicious," I said.

"As well you should be, because they are connected," Mayuri said. "I no longer have control over my little pets but someone else has and whoever it is has made them more powerful. The only thing we know about them for certain is that they're making their way through to the Living World by the same means that the rest of the Hollows do."

"From Hueco Mundo," Uryu said.

"And if someone is snatching up souls from Hueco Mundo it's safe to assume that whoever is taking these Hollows is also the one controlling these hybrids," Kurama said.

"But what for?" I asked.

"To help make whatever they're doing easier," Kisuke said. "Soul Reapers can't kill 'em, and you can't kill 'em. Not alone anyway."

"And no one knows who is behind this or why they're doing it?" Hiei asked.

"Only that whatever they're up to is going to potentially unravel the fabric of the universe," Kisuke said. "So I think it's pretty important that it gets looked into."

"And it is," Rukia said. "In the meantime, the head captain has ordered that reinforcements be sent to Karakura Town and West City which seem to be the epicenter of the trouble, however, there is one other place where we've noticed an increase in activity."

"Where?" I asked.

"Mount Paozu," she said.

"That's where me and my family live," I said.

"Not a coincidence," Kurama said.

"I suggest you find a way to get them here. If any of the hybrids start popping up there, your family will be in danger," Rukia said.

"Right," I said.

"And in the meantime, I suggest you all make friendly with each other. You're going to need each others help to get rid of these hybrids," Kisuke said. "And you can bet that they'll only be getting stronger when they figure out we're onto them."

"Well, that shouldn't be a problem for you and Ichigo, Kairi," Kurama said.

"Enough with the jokes, Kurama. Everyone knows I'm dating Ichigo. Let it go," I said.

"You're dating Ichigo?" Rukia asked.

"I know! Isn't she too pretty to be his girlfriend?" Rangiku asked.

"Stop saying that!" Ichigo complained.


	9. Bunnies in the Closet

_[A/N: Sorry for the lateness! Happy Memorial Day!]_

_**Chapter Nine: Bunnies in the Closet**_

"You're just as bad as your father, making people upset and making them want to destroy the planet and now I can't even sleep in my own house," Mom complained as she settled into the Briefs' compound the next morning. The compound was still under construction since the attack on Saturday, but by now things being destroyed by giant monsters was something everyone had gotten used to.

"Everyone is pretty sure this is all my fault somehow, but to be perfectly honest I'm still ready to pin all this blame on dad," I said. "Or Bardock. I still don't think I trust him."

"He's harmless, but I understand why you're suspicious," Mom said. "And you're staying safe?"

I nodded. "West City is crawling with Soul Reapers now and since I'm staying with Shiori near Karakura Town there's even more there, so I'll be fine. And you'll be fine too since there isn't much Spirit Energy to be given off here."

"Are you sure you don't want to stay here?" Mom asked.

"I'm sure. They'll need me in Karakura Town if anything bad happens since none of them can fight off the hybrids without one of us," I said. "And besides Trunks still hates my guts."

Mom sighed. "You're so much like your father, always looking out for other people even though it terrifies me."

"Well I made sure you got taken care of first didn't I?" I asked. "I may scare you, but I do love you."

"And Ichigo is making sure you're safe too?" Mom asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. He's pretty good at that, not that I need much saving these days."

She pulled me over and kissed my forehand.

Trunks knocked on the frame and leaned in.

"Hey, Kairi, Ichigo is here," he said.

"Go to school," Mom said. "Stay safe. And I will see you and Ichigo for dinner tonight?"

"Yes you will," I said. I picked up my school bag and walked out of the room and downstairs with Trunks.

"So can I ask why he walked all the from Karakura to the other side of West City just to walk you all the way back to school?" Trunks asked.

"Are you asking because you're curious or because you're just being obnoxious?" I asked.

"I just don't get why he would go through all the trouble," Trunks said.

"Because he likes me, obviously," I said. "You used to go out of your way for me."

"But—."

"But now you know what a lying, cheating, soul sucking harpie I am," I said.

"I was going to say that you don't need a babysitter anymore, but your answer is good too," he said.

I nodded. "Hilarious. I'll see you later. Stay out of trouble," I said. I walked outside and saw Ichigo standing on the sidewalk in front of the house.

"Try not to ruin anyone's life," he said. I waved him off and walked up to Ichigo. He smiled when he saw me and he leaned down and kissed me.

"Hey there," I said. "I thought the whole gang was coming."

"Nah. I just sent them with Kurama and Yukina," he said.

"Wanted to have me all to yourself?" I asked.

"Yeah, since it's never going to happen with every Soul Reaper in existence here," he said. "I'm still sorry about Renji yesterday."

"Don't worry about it," I said. "I'm sure I'll eventually stop feeling humiliated once I learn to repress it."

"I'm glad you can repress it. Renji probably isn't going to let me forget it," Ichigo said.

"Well, it wasn't the worst experience of my life," I said. "I was really enjoying myself until we were interrupted." I pushed myself up onto my toes, and kissed him. "Although I am going to fail my math test today. Unless the only question they ask me on the test is what the formula is that you need to find the area of a scalene triangle is."

"What is that formula called, Kairi?" Ichigo asked.

"Herrings formula?" I asked.

"You are going to fail math," he said. "It's my fault. I distracted you."

"I let you distract me and I was going to fail anyway," I said. "I'm just an unmotivated slacker and if I can't apply minimal effort when doing it then it usually doesn't get done. There are exceptions to that, obviously, but math isn't one of them."

888

"I just don't understand why I need to know how to find the area of a scalene triangle anyway. Do scalene triangles even exist in nature and if they do am I even going to need to find the area of one if I come across it?" I asked.

Orihime shrugged next to me. It was last period and we were in art class, one of the few classes I was doing well in.

"I think they say that architects and engineers really need that kind of math," Orihime said.

"Do I look like a future architect or engineer? I'm probably under qualified for fast food," I said.

"Don't put yourself down like that," Orihime said. "You just have to try harder every once in a while. Once you pass math and finish 10th grade and eventually high school, it'll all be behind you."

"And then what? College?" I asked.

"Why not?" Orihime asked.

Well, for starters I hate school. Secondly I don't have good enough grades and my disciplinary record is horrifying and even if I wanted to go to college they would never let me in," I said. "Are you going to college?" She nodded. "Of course you are. All of you will—Chad, Uryu, and Ichigo. And you'll all become doctors and lawyers and business executives. And I will be living with my parents with naught but my abilities as a superior physical being which are only useful if you're fighting monsters, but not practical in every day life. And I was always okay with that."

"What's changed?" Orihime asked. "Is it because you quit?"

"I guess that's part of the reason, but it's also because of you guys," I said.

"Us?" Orihime asked.

"Yeah. This is like the first time in my life where I'm surrounded by people who aren't idiots or people who I enjoy annoying with my lack of intelligence," I said. "Especially, Ichigo. I'm just not good enough for him am I?"

"Probably not," Orihime answered.

"Wow, that's harsh," I said.

"I was joking," she said.

"Seriously though, if you don't mind being honest, harsh and blunt even, he is too good for me isn't he?" I asked.

Orihime sat there with her pencil against he sketch book, not moving, staring at it. She got like this every once in a while. She was stuck inside her own head like I'd said something mean to her or that she was thinking about something that bothering her her. She'd just get spacey and distant.

"I think that if Ichigo likes you, you shouldn't worry about it," Orihime said. "Because it means he thinks you're good enough."

I nodded. "Thanks."

She nodded and went back to drawing quietly, still inside of her own head.

"Is. . . Is everything okay, Orihime?" I asked.

She nodded, looked back over to me and smiled. "Yeah! I'm totally fine! Just trying to figure out what to make for dinner tonight! It's a very arduous task!"

I hadn't seen anyone so desperate to hide what they were really thinking about since I'd met Hiei. But unlike Hiei, Orihime didn't annoy the crap out of me. If she was going through something and didn't want me to bother her about it then I'd just let her have her space.

Still, it wasn't really in my nature to just let things bother my friends.

The bell rang and we packed up our things. Orihime gave me her cheerful goodbye before walking out of the classroom. I followed shortly thereafter and found Ichigo waiting for me outside the door.

"Hey there," Ichigo said.

"Have you ever noticed anything weird about Orihime?" I asked.

"You know her not to be weird?" he asked.

"Like, do you ever talk to her and she seems kind of distant and awkward and that kind of thing?" I asked.

"All the time," he said.

"And you don't you think that's weird?" I asked.

"I think it's weird that you always make random reference to stuff that doesn't make sense, but I let it go," he said. "Orihime's always been like that."

"You don't think there's something bothering her?" I asked.

"I think she's fine. If something was bothering her wouldn't she say something?" Ichigo asked.

"Maybe not," I said.

"Why would she just keep it to herself if something was bugging her?" Ichigo asked.

"Sometimes people just keep it all bottled up inside to seem strong. They don't like to put their problems off on other people. I know I'm guilty of doing that," I said.

"Well if she doesn't want to talk about it let it go. She'll talk when she's ready," Ichigo said.

I walked to Ichigo's house and the trip was thankfully uneventful. Karin and Yuzu were both eating in the kitchen.

"Hey, Kairi! Oh, my gosh! You cut your hair!" Yuzu exclaimed when she saw me.

"Yeah. It was getting out of control," I said. "But now it's getting kind of awkward."

"I like it," Yuzu said.

"Yeah, you don't look like a wild woman anymore," Karin said. "Welcome to civilization."

". . . Thank you?" I said unsurely. It was kind of impossible to tell whether or not Karin was complimenting me or insulting me sometimes. I knew that she didn't hate me, she was probably just being overly cautious of me, making sure that I was actually worthy to date her brother. I remember being really dismissive of Videl she first started coming around with Gohan.

"Oh, dad said he needed your help with something in the clinic," Yuzu said.

Ichigo sighed and I took his bag from him. "I'll just wait upstairs and pretend to do homework."

"Grade A work ethic you've got there," Karin said as Ichigo left to the clinic. "I mean that metaphorically of course."

"You're such a comedian," I said.

"And you're a moron," Karin said.

"Stop fighting you two. You're acting like babies," Yuzu said, frowning at us.

"Sorry," I said walking over to the stairs.

"Are you staying for dinner?" Yuzu asked.

"No, my parents my are actually here so I'm having dinner with them tonight and I'll probably kidnap your brother too if that's okay," I said.

"All right, maybe tomorrow. You haven't stayed here in a while," she said.

"You got it, Yuzu," I said.

"You're not gonna earn brownie points by sucking up to her," Karin said.

"Yeah, but I might get some actual brownies out of the deal," I said.

Yuzu chuckled and Karin rolled her eyes, seeming slightly amused. I was pretty okay with the fact that I had a younger brother and not a younger sister. I was afraid she might turn out like Karin who was just too similar to me for comfort. I wanted to strangle Goten enough of the time as it was.

I walked up to Ichigo's room, stepped out of my shoes and sat on his bed. I pulled out my math book and looked through what my test today had been on. I shook my head. Karin was right—I was a moron. At least when it came to math. Science I was slowly getting the hang of, but math was just not happening.

A few minutes later Ichigo came through the door. He closed the door behind himself and looked over to me.

"Did Karin really call you a moron?" he asked.

"Yes, but she might have a point," I said. "Besides, Orihime did once tell me that it was good that I was pretty because I wasn't smart."

"I don't think she meant it that way," he said coming and sitting down next to me. "You have no work ethic. You don't try. It's like you pick up little bits and pieces of things you learn and try to work them all in together and it. . . Doesn't work. Especially with math."

". . . My dad does that. It's like he hears words in conversation and doesn't know what they mean but he uses them anyway," I said. "It took us forever to teach him what rhetorical meant and sometimes I still don't think he gets it. Maybe that's just the way the part of my brain that does math works."

"I don't think you're stupid," he said. "I just think you're lazy and that you don't care and that maybe you should, because other people will think you're just some dumb bimbo with a pretty face and I know you're not."

"Well I usually just punch people in the face if they think that way about me, but I understand your concern," I said. "I will ask Uryu to tutor me, and I'll try not to make him flip a table or write on my forehead again."

"How are you going to convince him?" he asked.

"I have this jacket that I really like I wear sometimes and Uryu said he has 'vision' for it, and I was like 'no you're not messing with my jacket' but I guess having him go a little _Project Runway_ on it for a passing grade in math wouldn't be so bad. I'll just never wear that jacket again—or I can give it Karin just to annoy her," I said.

"I couldn't imagine why you don't get along," Ichigo said.

"That was sarcasm?" I asked. He nodded. "Okay, sometimes things just go right over your head. You're a little bit oblivious."

"I've been told that before," he said. "But I don't think I miss anything important."

"You might. You never know," I said. "Come a little closer and I'll tell you something you've missed." Ichigo leaned down and turned his head as if I were actually going to tell him something. "Haha. You're so funny."

He chuckled and turned his head to kiss me. "Couldn't help it." He moved to kiss me again, but stopped short of my lips. I frowned at him and he chuckled again. I moved to kiss him, but he stopped me, putting a finger to my lips.

"I do not approve of this, Shinigami," I said against his finger.

"I don't either, but you're kind of cute when you get all pouty like that," he said.

"You think I'm cute?" I asked playfully.

"Sometimes," he said. "For instance." He quickly pulled his hands from my lips and started tickling my sides. I tried to get away, but he pinned me down against the bed leaving me to lie there, laughing like a child. When he finally stopped tickling me, I just laid there until he leaned down and kissed me.

"Point made. Do not tickle me again or we're going to have some issues," I said.

"Sure, sure," he said dismissively. He leaned down and kissed me again and that's when his closet door opened.

"Ichigo, I was wondering how many Hollows would you say you've come across since Spirit World started the process of closing the tunnel?" Rukia asked. She was sitting in his closet, casually, legs folded, wearing a pink floral print dress.

"Why does that even matter?" Ichigo asked, seeming unfazed by her presence as we both moved to an upright position.

"I'm sorry. Why is Rukia in your closet?" I asked.

"I sleep here when I'm in the World of the Living," Rukia said. She pushed his closet door open and my jaw dropped. There was a pink sleeping mat covered in tiny little bunnies, the rest of the closet was covered in the same bunnies on the walls with a string of lights, all in the shape of the same bunny.

"Who the hell told you could decorate? I specifically told you not to decorate" Ichigo scolded her.

"Wow. . . Bunnies. . ." I said.

"It's Chappy the Rabbit," Rukia said. "He's a very popular character in the Soul Society."

I nodded. I was pretty sure I was done here. "Well you enjoy that. . . I'm gonna head home."

"But you just got here," Ichigo said.

"Yeah, but. . ." I paused and looked over to Rukia.

"Oh, no problem!" Rukia said. She retreated into her closet.

"I know it's weird," he said.

"Never mind the fact that it's extra weird, but this is the second time in as many days where one of your Soul Reaper buddies has caught you in a compromising situation with me," I said. "And one of them is living in your closet."

"It's just Rukia," he said.

"And I'm sure you'd be just as comfortable with it if Yusuke lived in my closet," I said.

Ichigo conceded with a nod. "It's only temporary. She's got nowhere else to go unless you want her."

I sighed. "All right. I know you two are tight after all. You'd probably let Orihime live in your closet if she asked."

"But they're the only two," he said.

"What about me?" I asked.

"Why would I make you sleep in the closet when I've got a perfectly good bed? I don't mind the floor," he said.

"I'm almost positive that we can both fit on this bed," I said.

"Sure, but self-control has never been your strong suit," he said. "I wouldn't want to tempt you."

"Your mere existence is temptation enough, Shinigami," I said. I pushed myself up onto my toes and kissed him. "It's only the presence of prying eyes that keeps me on my leash."

"I noticed," he said.

"And don't point fingers. You obviously don't have much control than I do," I said. I kissed him again. Those familiar pangs of desire started to rise up in me again and I forced myself away from him. "Maybe we can continue this conversation when you don't have a roommate."

"Definitely," he said. I kissed him again.

"Dinner is at six, don't forget," I said. "Goodbye, Rukia."

"Bye, Kairi," Rukia called through the closet.

888

I was sitting in my room, reading for biology at my desk. I went to twist through my hair like I usually did, but it fell away from my fingers. I sighed. It wasn't exactly short, but I wasn't used to the length anymore.

"Detective." I looked over to the door and Hiei was standing there.

"Hello," I said turning back to my book. Hiei had been here since Saturday, at the pleading of my aunt who was convinced he was homeless, which was technically true. "What brings you?"

"I thought you were out with your Soul Reaper," he said.

"It got a little crowded over there," I said. "But he's coming for dinner. He should be here soon actually."

"How exciting," he said rolling his eyes.

"Did you know," I started looking at my biology book, "that in the womb we all start off as both male and female which why men have nipples. Also, because of that the clitoris is actually an undeveloped penis."

"Why are you telling me this?" he asked.

"Because you're in my room for no reason," I said. "You're at the mercy of my biology homework."

"Lucky me," he said. "I see you're less irritated with me."

"Hmm?" I asked.

"You haven't said more than hello to me since Saturday," he said.

"Oh. . ." I trailed off remembering our conversation. "I wasn't irritated. I think you just hurt my feelings."

"I hurt your feelings?" he asked.

"I don't think people like hearing that you only used them for their body," I said.

"I wasn't using you," he said. I cocked an eyebrow at him. "Or that wasn't my intent at least."

"Well, you told me my expectations were misplaced. Maybe yours were too," I said.

"I didn't have any," he said.

"I'm sure you weren't expecting to come back and find me with Ichigo. Maybe you thought that I'd be okay with you popping up every once in a while and us just fooling around, having fun, but I don't want that anymore. People get hurt that way. Trunks got hurt that way," I said. "I got hurt that way, obviously."

"And you're happy with how things are with your Shinigami?" he asked.

I nodded. "Quite happy. Tell me, what do you think of him?"

"I think you have a type," he said. "And that I don't like it."

I shrugged. "I suppose you differ from the variety of boys I seem to go for, except for the sword and the combative attitude. Maybe you were just a phase, Hiei." He scoffed. "You're so arrogant. You don't even like me and you're appalled by the thought that I could ever get over you, like you're etched onto my very soul or something, well you are not."

"Clearly," he said.

"Don't be so peeved, Hiei. I mean, I was really mad at you after you left. I almost didn't go out with Ichigo because of you and even though I was angry when you showed back up. . . I still missed you," I said. "And I am glad you're back, even if there's nothing in it for me."

"Nothing in it for you like what?" he asked.

I shrugged as I thought back to our brief encounter in my room that I mistook for the beginnings of a relationship.

"Your emotional support, the way you tease me, your awkward hugs," I said with a sigh. I replayed the night in my head, thinking to myself that of Hiei weren't, well Hiei, he might actually make a semi-decent boyfriend. He was pretty emotionally shallow, and was pretty blunt, but he was honest, and very sincere and could even be considerate of me when no one else was watching. Sure, he could be emotionally distant, but he made up for it in other ways. He was a man of action after all. Words didn't suit him very well, but he could be physically expressive.

And if I could say anything about Hiei it was that he was not short on physical prowess in any respect.

I felt the skin of my face start to burn as I recalled the rest of that evening, and I looked him over standing in my door way—his hands, his mouth. . . his hands.

"What about my hands?" he asked.

"What? Nothing. Nothing at all. Didn't say anything," I said flushing even redder with embarrassment. I was either thinking out loud, or was too distracted to keep my thoughts to myself. I turned back to my book. "You should leave. Ichigo will be here soon. He doesn't really like you."

"Yes, and I'm sure you need to compose yourself," he said.

"I am perfectly composed thank you very much," I lied.

"Don't be angry with me because you're having inappropriate thoughts about someone other than your darling Soul Reaper," Hiei said.

"Get out of my room if you're going to be a jerk," I said.

"I'm not being a jerk, you're just taking me for one because I'm telling the truth and you don't want to hear it," he said.

"Well then get out anyway. You're getting on my nerves," I said.

"And if I say no?" Hiei said.

"Then I might I have something to say about it."

Ichigo stepped in to the frame and looked down at Hiei. They glared at each other for a moment, before, Hiei turned away with a scoff.

"Yes, I suppose you would be one to protest," Hiei said.

"And yet I see you're still here," Ichigo said.

"So, I am," Hiei replied.

"I really don't want to have a problem with you, Hiei, and right now I feel like we might have a problem," Ichigo said.

"A problem?" Hiei scoffed.

"She told you to leave, now leave, before I make you leave," Ichigo said.

"Ichigo," I started. The last thing I wanted to see was the two of them fighting.

Hiei scoffed one last time before he stepped out of my doorway allowing Ichigo to pass. He stepped into my room and closed the door behind himself.

"What's his problem?" Ichigo asked.

"Harassing me is one of his favorite past times. You just got caught in the crossfire I think," I said.

"Anyway, your parents aren't here yet so I thought I'd just come wait here with you," he said.

"I always enjoy your company," I said closing my textbook. I got to my feet and walked over to where he was standing by the door. "I think I most enjoy your company when there isn't an audience."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about the past few days. And I wanted to make it up to you," he said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, white, cardboard jewelry box. "It was Rukia's idea. She said you seemed pretty irritated and that I should get you something."

He handed me the box and I lifted the lid from it. There was a small necklace inside—a basic silver chain with a steel, red capital "I" dangling from it. I lifted it out the box and examined it.

"Aww, Ichigo," I started.

"Hey don't get all cutesy on me," he said.

"I wasn't. I was going to ask why you didn't get me something useful like chicken wings," I said. He frowned at me as pushed myself on my toes and kissed him. "Thank you. But I wasn't mad anymore. A little annoyed maybe, but totally over it."

"I figured, but whatever. Peer pressure," he said.

"Here," I handed him the necklace and turned my back to him. "Put it on."

"You're so needy," he said, jokingly as I moved my hair out of the way. He swung the necklace around the front of me and I winced at the feel of the cool steel against my skin. "Are you okay?"

"It's just cold," I said as he rested his hands on my shoulders. "Your hands are warm though." I let my hair fall back down, but Ichigo immediately brushed it out of the way. He then leaned down and kissed me just behind my ear. A chill rolled down my spine.

"Still cold?" he asked.

I chuckled. "Not cold."

He continued to kiss me, moving further and further down my neck until he reached my shoulder.

"Ichigo," I started to protest, but I was pretty bad at that. I was better at giving in, just letting it go. That was more fun anyway.

I turned around to face him and pulled his lips down to mine, draping my arms around his neck. It was always difficult to stay like this while vertical, given our eight inch height difference, but Ichigo remedied this quickly. He grabbed me by my hips and lifted me up from the ground. He turned us around and held me firmly against my bedroom door. My legs instinctively wrapped around his waists and my fingers curled around his shoulder.

Ichigo ran a hand through my hair. I pulled my lips from his and moved to kiss across his jaw and down his neck. He groaned slightly, tightening the grasp he had on my hip.

"Kairi," he breathed. I brought our lips together and again and his lips moved against mine hungrily. But then he pulled away, pausing to leave a few fleeting kisses my lips. "Your parents are coming over."

"Right," I said. I kissed him again.

"We should probably stop," he said kissing me again.

"I know," I said pulling his lips back to mine, "but I really don't want to."

He started to pull away again, and I dropped my head against his chest in an effort to control myself. I unhooked my legs from around him and he lowered me to the floor.

I walked away from him and went back to sit on my desk, bypassing my chair.

"Your hair is kind of. . ." Ichigo motioned that it was messy. I looked back into my mirror and saw that it was a little wild between the door and his hands.

I picked up my brush and started running it through my hair.

"So. . .I don't have to worry about Hiei do I?" Ichigo asked.

"Hiei's a jerk, but he's harmless," I said.

"You're always bickering and when I met him I wanted to hit him. I still want to," he said.

"Well, I'm sure he feels the same about you," I said. "I know he does. I think he feels that way about everyone."

"Not about you," Ichigo said.

"I'm sure he does," I said.

"Just not for the same reason he wants to hit everyone else," Ichigo said.

"And what reason would that be?" I asked.

"I think he just likes you," Ichigo said.

"Well I like you so if he does like me he's shit out of luck," I said.

"Good to hear," he said.

"Have I adequately reassured you?" I asked.

"It was never you that I was worried about. Just him," Ichigo said.

"Well, of you're worried about him then you have to take it up with him," I said. "Look like you two need to have a conversation."

Ichigo scoffed. "When hell freezes over."


	10. Now Lower Down, Where the Sins Lie

_[A/N: Howdy ya'll. Trying my hand at the light smut yet again. Please offer some feed back as I appreciate that kind of thing! And another shout out xXJrHazardXx for his help in really developing this chapter because I could not have done it without him.]_

_**Chapter Ten: Now Lower Down, Where the Sins Lie**_

My parents left to go back to Capsule Corp., and Ichigo returned to Karakura Town.

"So, that Ichigo guy is actually pretty cool," Kuwabara said. I was in the kitchen with my friends, washing dishes. They'd all been there for dinner that night, except Keiko who was helping her parents that night.

"I think so too," I said.

"Yeah, I guess he's not as much of a tool as Trunks," Yusuke said. "I guess he's all right, not that you've got the greatest taste in guys, right Hiei?"

Hiei rolled his eyes as I put the last dish in the dish rack to dry.

"What exactly do you not like about Ichigo?" I asked.

"Well, for starters what's with the stupid necklace?" Yusuke asked, pointing.

"He gave it to me," I said, wrapping my fingers around it.

"I think it's nice," Yukina said.

"Yeah, it really brings out your paleness," Hiei said.

"You always give such wonderful compliments, Hiei," I said, rolling my eyes.

"And the only reason she's pale is because she's spent so much time in the city instead of back home," Kurama said.

"Yeah. Usually Kairi's sporting a farmer's tan," Yusuke said.

"What's a farmer's tan?" Yukina asked.

"It's when you spend all day outside in the sun in a tank top working the radish fields on your tractor and only your arms, neck, and face get tan," Yusuke said.

"Fuck off, Yusuke," I said.

"Kairi's whole life is one big country song," Yusuke said.

I stuck my tongue out at him as my phone buzzed on the counter.

"Can you check that text for me," I said as I dried my hands. Yusuke picked up my phone and looked at the screen.

"Booty call," he said.

"Booty call?" Yukina asked.

"It says 'curfew's not for three hours. Come watch a movie' and then there's a little winky face," Yusuke said. "As everyone knows, 'watch a movie' is code for 'let's bone.'"

"It is not," I said.

"I'm still not sure what you guys are talking about," Yukina said.

"Can you tell him I'll be there, and stop corrupting Yukina," I said starting to put the dishes away.

"Well, can you really blame me?" Yusuke asked. "Given past events."

"And what do you mean by that?" Kurama asked

"I'm just saying, from what Keiko's told me, given Kairi's past interactions with Hiei, it's not so crazy for me to think that she puts out," Yusuke said.

"Yusuke!" I scolded him.

"What past interactions?" Kurama asked.

"Nothing," I said glaring at Yusuke said. I walked over and snatched my phone away. "Right, Hiei?"

"Sure," he replied.

"I'm leaving," I said. "Please tell your mom that I will be home at 11."

888

Twenty minutes later I knocked on Ichigo's door. He opened it and reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone.

"'On my way, bom-chicka-wow-wow'?" Ichigo read from his phone. He turned the phone around and showed me the text. I sighed. It was sent from me.

"Last time I leave Yusuke within range of my phone," I said walking inside. "So what are we watching?" I started toward the living room, but Ichigo took my hand.

"Karin, Yuzu, and my dad are all watching Don Kanonji," Ichigo said. "So I set it up on my computer in my room."

"Oh, cool," I said as we walked upstairs. "I can't believe I actually know people who watch that show."

"Well, he's not completely delusional as it turns out. I met him once and he ended up setting off this demi-Hollow. He's an idiot, but a Spiritually Aware one," Ichigo said. I walked into his room and sat down Indian Style on his bed while he closed the door and set up the movie.

"So, where are your roommates?" I asked the movie started to play.

"Rukia's out keeping watch for any Hollows for a few hours," Ichigo said. "And Yuzu is holding Kon hostage which she does every once in a while. I'm not saying I suggested it, but I definitely did."

I chuckled.

He shut the bedroom light off and came to sit on the bed next to me. We reclined back against the wall and he put his arm around me.

Watching movies on a date was pretty much the most ingenious thing ever. Something about sitting in a dark room with only the flickering light from the screen made for the perfect atmosphere for cuddling and making out. It usually didn't matter what was on as long as it wasn't something you were going to get engrossed in. I'd missed whole chunks of movies since I'd started dating Ichigo.

So perhaps Yusuke was a bit right. "Watch a movie" just meant "come over and let's make out in my room" and not "let's bone" as Yusuke had put it.

It didn't take very long. He already had his arm around me, and I almost immediately rested my head on his shoulder. Soon he was running his fingers through my hair and I slowly moved to swing my legs over his so that I was nearly sitting on his lap. The first twenty minutes of the movie were pretty good from what I could tell, but after that I was too distracted by Ichigo's mouth to pay attention to what happened next.

We were laying back on his bed, his fingers dancing at the hem of my shirt as his tongue moved against mine. I raked my finger nails against his back and a groan rumbled in his throat.

His hand snuck quietly beneath my shirt and I hummed slightly at the familiar feeling of his hand on my bare skin. I pulled him closer as his hand moved from beneath my shirt and up into my hair. I had barely registered his other hand on my thigh as he thumbed at the hem of my shorts. I could feel my desire building up again and kissed him feverishly, urging him to continue.

Ichigo's hand slid down between my thighs, beneath my skirt, instantly causing my body to react as a chill rolled down my spine. He rubbed me through my panties, and I restrained myself from letting out a moan. His room may have been deserted for once, but his family was sitting right downstairs.

I could feel him growing hard against my leg, fueling my own arousal even more. I ran my hand up to his shoulder and rolled him onto his back, not pulling my lips from his as I did. I straddled him as I pressed my lips against his. I trailed my hand down his chest to his belt buckle and pulled it open as quickly as I could. I made short work of button and zipper as well. I slid a finger beneath his waist band and his body shuttered at my touch. I then slowly slid my hand into his boxers and grabbed hold of his throbbing member.

Ichigo cursed into my lips as I released his cock from his pants. I stroked it slowly, feeling Ichigo's chest ride and fall as his breathing became ragged. Soon, his shaft was coated in a sheen of pre-cum and my hand slid easily on it, but then a wicked little idea crossed my mind.

I abandoned Ichigo's lips and maneuvered myself down between his legs. I pushed my hair back from my face and then locked my eyes on Ichigo's cock. I'd never done this before, but I was equally sure that this would be a first for Ichigo as well.

I moved my head forward and then slowly licked the length of his shaft. Ichigo restrained a moan as I completed the motion. His reaction was enough to give me confidence. A moment later, I took as much of him into my mouth as I could. I sucked slightly and I could feel him move beneath me. I grabbed hold of his cock at the base and then slowly started to work him up and down. Soon, as I could tell Ichigo was enjoying whatever it was I was doing, I developed a steady rhythm. His fingers curled around the bed sheets at his waist and I could hear his breathing becoming more and more uneven.

His fingers soon slipped into my hair, gripping it tightly, urging me on. I made my movements faster and faster. And then, my name tumbled from his lips and his hips bucked slightly and before I knew what was happening, Ichigo found his release. I could feel his cock throbbing between my lips as his warm, sweet liquid filled my mouth. I swallowed it down and pulled my lips away from his cock, pausing only to flick its head with my tongue.

I moved to sit on my knees as Ichigo adjusted himself and returned his now softening member to his boxers. He didn't bother to fix his jeans as he sat up and moved to me quickly to claim my lips in an impassioned kiss. He pushed me back against the wall and moved his hands to my thighs. He quickly slid his hand beneath my legs and he slid my panties down my legs before tossing them away.

He slowly inched his hands back between my legs and up to my wetness. His fingers moved against my slit tentatively. My body shuttered at his touch as he continued to explore me. Soon his fingers moved against my clit and I couldn't help but moan quietly into his mouth. Having found my pleasure button, Ichigo started to slowly rub his finger in circles on it. My fingers gripped his shoulders tightly and I bit at his lip to myself from making too much noise.

Ichigo pulled his lips away and moved to leave a trail of hot open mouthed kisses down my neck. His fingers abandoned clit and slid down until he found my entrance. Slowly, he slipped one finger inside of me. I arched my back into him and his name tumbled from my lips. He worked his finger in and out of me slowly, pushing me closer and closer to my peak. Then without warning he slipped a second finger into me. It took all my restraint to not cry out as I tossed my head back against the wall.

His movements became faster, and I could feel the pressure building up inside of me, pushing me closer and closer. I buried my face into his shoulder and allowed myself to let a moan that had been fighting its way up my throat. I was so close now, I urged him not to stop, gripped his shoulders tightly as his lips continued to dance on my neck.

And then it hit me. I buried his name into his shoulder as a wave of warmth and release washed over me. A few restrained moans followed as I started come down from my high. I clung to him tightly as he pulled his fingers out of me and he gently kissed his way up my neck back to my lips.

He pulled away from me and finally went to fix his jeans as I shuffled through the blankets on the bed.

As he finished buckling his belt he looked over to me. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to find my underwear," I said. "What did you do with them?"

"I just kind of threw them," he said. I crawled up to sit next to him, adjusting my skirt so it would lay flat.

"I kind of need them," I said looking around the floor, but it was dark and I could barely see anything.

"You can find them before you leave," he said. "Unless you were planning on going somewhere."

"Not at the moment," I said. He leaned down to kiss me, snaking his through my hair as he did. I took a small handful of his shirt to hold him close and used my other hand to steady myself on the bed.

But then his lights came on. I felt the bed sink around is as the weight of other _people_ came down on it, and then I heard a sigh. Startled, Ichigo and I broke away from each other.

"Again?" Renji said with an irritated sigh.

I found Renji standing by Ichigo's desk amongst the room that was completely filled with Soul Reapers. There was even one sitting on the floor, holding his sheathed sword casually, like he was supposed to be here, like he just popped by to have a chat with Ichigo and observe us. And here was Renji, for the second time, in two days and he had the audacity to sound annoyed.

"Please tell me you're not standing there acting all irritated like we've victimized you somehow, Renji, because you know what, I don't think I pop up in your room unannounced while you're making out with your girlfriend and last time I checked you've done it to us twice now," I scolded him.

"It's not like I did it on purpose," Renji said. "How was I supposed to know you were here?"

"It doesn't matter if I'm here or not. You don't just burst into people's rooms unannounced," I said. "I mean, what happened to manners? Do you not have manners in the Soul Society?"

"Hey, I've got plenty of manners for your information!" Renji protested.

"Just let it go," Rukia urged Renji.

"He can't let it go, Rukia. Because he doesn't have _manners_," I said. "I bet you talk with your mouth full too and you cough into your hands instead of your sleeve."

"Listen you little pipsqueak, don't think I won't kick your ass just because you're Ichigo's girlfriend," Renji said.

"Feel free to try if you're that stupid," I said.

"So now you think I'm ill-mannered _and_ stupid?" Renji started to protest. "Ichigo you'd better learn to control that girlfriend of yours—."

"Don't tell him to control me like he's in charge of me or something, or like he can save you if I decide to kick your ass," I said.

The bald soul reaper sitting on the floor holding his sword chuckled. "I like this girl already."

"I don't need anyone to save me! I'll have you know-!"

"Renji, how long are you going to continue this?" The captain standing next to Renji spoke quietly, but firmly. He had long black hair with strange white hair pieces at the very top of his head and on the right side of his head.

Renji frowned. "Sorry, Captain."

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I totally see the attraction now," Rangiku said from the other side of Ichigo sitting on the bed.

"Hey, no comments from the peanut gallery over there, Tits McGee. I am in no mood," I said.

"Tits McGee!" Rangiku said, seeming completely scandalized. "You're not so flat chested yourself."

"Everyone is flat chested compared to you," Toshiro said from his spot in Ichigo's window.

"Captain!" Rangiku complained. He looked at her knowingly and she pouted. You couldn't argue with the facts.

I took a deep breath and crossed my arms. "Who are you people anyway?"

"Well, we're Soul Reapers," said a tall man wearing captain's robes and an eye patch. His skin was tan, his hair was spiky with tiny red bells attached to the end of each spike.

"Oh, really? I had no idea. You must be Captain Obvious. What's your squad in charge of? Dumb fucking answers?" I asked.

The man chuckled to himself. It was then that I noticed that there was a little girl hanging over his shoulder. She was dressed in full soul reaper garb with pink hair. She was like a little kid.

"Actually, I'm Kenpachi Zaraki, captain of squad 11 and our division happens to specialize in sword-only combat. We're a squad filled with killing machines," he said. "But I like your attitude kid. You probably piss a lot of people off."

"I find that people with attitudes like that usually do," Renji muttered.

"You will _find_ the back of my hand very displeasing, Lieutenant Abarai," I said.

"I swear I could almost hear her snapping her hand in a z-formation as she said that," the soul reaper sitting next to me said.

"Now, tone back the sass Kairi," Kisuke said from the other side of the room where he was standing with a slender dark skinned woman with purple hair pulled up into a pony tail. "How about I introduce you to everyone and maybe that'll help you relax a bit."

And so he did. The Captain that stood with Renji and Rukia was Byakuya Kuchiki, Rukia's older brother and Renji's captain. The girl on Kenpachi's arm was Yachiru, his lieutenant. With him he'd also brought his third seat, Ikkaku who was very, very bald, and fifth his seat, Yumichika who was sporting some kind orange neckwear and two yellow and red feathers he wore on his right eyelash and eyebrow respectively who was sitting next to me.

The dark skinned woman was Yoruichi, another former captain like Kisuke. With her was Soifon, captain of squad two and the leader of the stealth force (whatever that was). She was a small woman, with short cut dark hair in the front with two long braids going down her back. Also with us were Mayuri and Nemu.

"And what are you all doing here?" Ichigo asked.

"Well we've got some new information for you, Ichigo," Kisuke said. "And it's a good thing you're here to Kairi, but I'm certain this probably concerns you a great deal."

"Our intelligence showed before that the highest concentrations of these hybrids was here in Karakura Town, West City, and Mount Paozu, but now it seems that the largest concentration of them is solely in West City," Rukia said. "Even more curious than that is that all activity in Mount Paozu has leveled off completely."

"Well, I did move my parents here today," I said. "You think that this has something to do with my dad?"

"We're beginning to think this is a very high possibility," Byakuya said. "Especially considering his track record, but we haven't ruled out that this has something to do with you."

"How is this my fault?" I asked.

"Given that the common link between all of these events is Spirit World and the Soul Society the only person with a connection to both is you," Kisuke said.

I frowned. So this is what it was like to be my father and have everything be your fault.

"In addition to the disappearance of all activity at your home, all hollow activity everywhere has decreased, even in Karakura Town which is unheard of at the moment," Toshiro said. "By morning it's projected that there will be no activity at all."

"Hmm. . ." I paused.

"What are you thinking?" Ichigo asked.

"When I met my grandpa he said that the reason I usually meet new people is because troubles coming," I said. "I don't think I questioned him about what he meant by that as much as I should have."

"Why is that important?" Renji asked.

"Because he allegedly died over 40 years ago when Planet Vegeta was destroyed," I said. "And also he's psychic like me. So that makes me suspicious. Additionally, if all activity is about to stop then that means something really bad is about to happen. Like you've put too much air into a balloon and it's about to pop."

"Exactly, Kairi," Kisuke said.

"And you guys still don't know who's behind all this?" Ichigo asked.

"Unfortunately no. We hardly even know where to begin looking or who to even suspect," Mayuri said. "The easiest place we thought to begin looking would be with your father, but we don't have much record of him. That would all be-"

"With Spirit World and since you're working with me they've probably stopped communicating with you as well," I said.

"Do you know if any of your father's enemies capable of capturing souls?" Byakuya asked.

"Not that I know of. Most couldn't even use Spirit Energy," I said thinking very hard about opponent of note that my father had ever squared off against. "Oh!"

"Have you remembered someone?" Rukia asked.

"No, but you know who you might want to talk to? Mister Popo, Dende, and Mister Piccolo on the Lookout," I said. "Popo and Piccolo have known my father longer than anyone and Dende is the guardian of Earth right now and can probably reach King Kai in Other World who might actually know what the hell is going on, completely circumventing King Yemma who is the reason we haven't heard from Spirit World."

"You've had contact with the kai's before?" Soifon asked.

"Sure—King Kai, Grand Kai, Supreme Kai, the old Supreme Kai. But King Kai trained my dad so we're pretty tight with him. Also, Supreme Kai is kind of annoying," I said.

"No wonder they made you Spirit Detective, you're very well connected," Yumichika said.

"Actually it was mostly so they could babysit me and use me to do their dirty work, but whatevs," I said. "Well connected I am. You guys all know how to get to the Lookout Right?" They all exchanged glances. "You've heard of it at least right?" The silence continued. I sighed. "Fine. Then this is what we'll do, I'll call my brother Gohan and I'll send him to the Lookout to talk to Dende and Popo and Piccolo. By tomorrow afternoon we should have more answers than we have now."

"Well, you're a surprisingly good problem solver," Kisuke said.

"Can I ask why it took 14 of you to come tell me all this?" Ichigo asked.

"We just wanted to visit!" Yachiru proclaimed.

"And when Rangiku told us about your girlfriend I just had to judge her for myself," Yumichika said. "And you were so right. She's much too pretty to be with Ichigo."

"Why the hell do you all keep saying that?!" Ichigo protested.

"It's like I said already—seeing her attitude it's obvious why she likes you," Rangiku said.

Ichigo frowned. "Whatever. Look, you guys can't just show up in my house all unannounced like this without prior notice."

"It's okay, Ichigo. We know you're only so upset this time because if we'd come in a few minutes later we'd have gotten quite a show," Kisuke said with a chuckle.

I could feel my face start to burn with humiliation as a few of the others chuckled as well.

"Will stop saying stuff like that already?! Is it even possible for me to have a conversation with the two without you making vague sexual references?"

"To be fair Ichigo, you were the one necking with your girlfriend in your dark bedroom," Renji said. "You kind of set yourself up for it."

"I didn't set myself up for anything! You just showed up here uninvited like you always do! Am I just never going to have her over here again because you all decided you have free reign over my room?" Ichigo asked jumping to his feet.

"Well that might be helpful in avoiding these awkward situations in the future," Renji said.

I pulled my face up from my hands in time to see Ichigo glaring at Renji. "Will you just leave all-!"

"Whose are these?" Ikkaku asked.

He held his hand up, and lo, my panties that been carelessly tossed aside not 10 minutes ago had been located. I felt every head in the room turn to look at me as the room was engulfed in silence.

So this is what it felt like to be paralyzed by humiliation. I couldn't even cover my face to hide from their eyes. I just kind of stared at my feet as my face turned the color of an apple.

And then it got worse.

Yachiru left her perch on Kenpachi's shoulder and waltzed over to Ikkaku. Snatched the panties away and then began to dance whimsically around the room singing "panties" over and over again.

"I like that color. What is that? Like blue-violet?" Yumichika asked.

"Indigo," Rangiku said.

"Oh, you're right," Yumichika said.

"You know, I think I have a scarf that color," Rangiku said.

"Really? That would look great with your hair," Yumichika said.

"I know. That's why-."

"Please," Ichigo said, clearly trying to suppress his embarrassment and rage, as he snatched my underwear away from Yachiru, "get out of my room right now or so help me-."

"All right, we got it Ichigo. We'll leave you to continue courting your lady friend and see you tomorrow," Kisuke said.

"Just remember, Ichigo, always use protection," Yoruichi said.

"Will you leave already?!" Ichigo shouted as I buried my face in my hands again. A moment later Ichigo was sitting next to me again and the room was empty. "Kairi. . . You okay?"

"'You can find them before you leave' you said," I said. Ichigo sighed.

"To be fair you weren't really protesting," he said.

"If I really wanted to be humiliated in front of all of those guys I could've just taken a math test in front of them," I said lifting my head from my hands.

"I wish I could say that it wouldn't happen again, but everything with those guys goes in one ear and out the other. They don't believe in boundaries, either that or they enjoy making me miserable," Ichigo said.

"They probably do, but they only do it because they like you," I said. "They may treat you like you're just some dumb teenage boy with one thing on his mind all the time and now you've got this girlfriend, who is way too pretty for you by the way, and suddenly showing up all the time has gone from them just being annoying to them hilariously cockblocking you at every turn."

"But it's not even like that. I hated them showing up like this before," he said.

I shrugged. "Doesn't matter. The only reason they're doing it is because they're your friends and what are friends for if not to occasionally cockblock and make sexual references at your expense. I'm an expert on this. I'm best friends with Yusuke Urameshi and while he is a pain the ass, he's also one of the most reliable people in my life. And I'm guessing those guys aren't so bad themselves."

"If you say so," Ichigo said with a sigh. "You're gonna go home now aren't you?"

"Actually I'm going to try to find a deep, dark hole to hide in," I said. "But I am leaving. I think the mood has been sufficiently killed."

"I'll make it up to you," he said.

"Yeah you better," I said. "And you should know that no cute little necklace is going to make up for this. This time it's gotta be edible."

"You're so easy to please," he chuckled.

I kissed his cheek. "I will see you tomorrow." I got to my feet and headed for the door when Ichigo cleared his throat.

"Forgetting something?" he asked. I looked back, and saw that he still had my panties.


	11. Something Wicked This Way Comes

_[A/N: Sorry for the late update! I was at Colossalcon this weekend so I didn't have the opportunity to update, but here you go! Additionally, I have to announce that I'm going on a short hiatus. I'm running out of backlogged chapters and don't want to make you wait any longer between updates than I have to. Hopefully, it should only be about 2 or 3 week, depending on how fast I can write. I'm very nearly at the end so hopefully I can push through it. In the mean time, don't forget to review!]_

_**Chapter Eleven: Something Wicked This Way Comes**_

I walked into my house that night and immediately went to the kitchen to grab something to drink. I stood at the counter and texted Gohan my newly formulated plan about going to see Dende and Piccolo between sips.

"Detective."

"Hello, Hiei," I said not bothering to look up from my phone to answer. "How was the rest of your evening?"

"Not nearly as exciting as yours from the look of that mark on your neck," he said.

"What thing on my neck? My necklace?" I asked still texting.

Hiei shook his head. "Bruise."

I frowned and put my phone down. I reached into the silverware drawer and pulled out a spoon. I held it up to my neck and looked in it's reflection. Sure enough there was a decently sized hickey on my neck.

"I am going to kill him," I said.

"Don't worry about it. It goes nicely with the unkempt hair," Hiei said.

I rolled my eyes. I finished off my drink before sitting my glass in the sink.

"Did you want something from me or can I go to bed," I said.

"Rukia Kuchiki was here," Hiei said, "a few minutes ago explaining the state of things. She said she'd just come from paying you and Kurosaki a visit."

"Yeah, her and every other Soul Reaper Ichigo's ever met," I said. "She sleeps in his closet by the way."

"What?" Hiei asked.

"Yeah. When she's here in the Living World she sleeps in his closet. She decorated it and made it into a makeshift bedroom. It's totally the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life," I said.

"Does it make you uncomfortable?" he asked.

"Obviously it does. There's a girl sleeping in my boyfriends' closet. I trust Ichigo and I'm sure Rukia's not interested, but still," I said. "That's fucking weird right?"

"If you think so," Hiei said.

"Don't you have an opinion?" I asked.

"Does my opinion really matter to you?" he asked.

"Well, yeah, I guess," I said.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because you're my friend, I mean I consider you one despite the fact that you don't," I said. "But you're a difficult man to get an opinion out of."

"It's difficult to give an opinion when you don't care," Hiei said.

". . . I think you do care a little. And I think you do have an opinion about Ichigo," I said. Hiei cocked an eyebrow at me. "It's that I've been thinking about what you told me about why you hooked up with me. Like, it makes sense that what happened between us was just some physical, lust fueled madness on your part, but excuse me if I'm having a hard time actually believing that."

"Why?" he asked.

"Because, Ichigo hasn't done anything to you except want you to stop bugging me and you're a total dick to him. And I get that he's not that nice to you either, but he's my boyfriend and he knows what happened between us so he's got every right to feel a little threatened by your presence so I can't take your side," I said. "But if you don't like me then you don't have any reason to egg him on like you do, and you didn't have any reason to do it to Trunks either. And that's what made me think."

"Think about what?" he asked.

"When you killed those demons who showed up before we went to face Sensui, and we got into that argument because I'd told the guys about what had happened at the tournament. . . And I only told you I was annoying because I cared and you said. . .. You were only mean to me because you care," I said.

"It was merely a slip of the tongue," he said.

"Well, that's just it. You don't just slip like that, Hiei. You think things through before you say them. The only time you don't use a filter is because you're saying what you really feel," I said. "So it just makes sense to me that you would you dislike Ichigo so much because-."

"Because what, Detective? Because I'm jealous? Don't flatter yourself. I already gave you your answer," he said. "Choose not to believe it if you want, but don't go dreaming up imaginary scenarios to make yourself feel better."

"I'm not imagining anything and you're not being truthful," I said.

"And what difference would it make if I wasn't? If you're so happy with your Shinigami what does it matter," Hiei said. "I figured you'd want to leave the past in the past. . . Unless. . ."

"Unless what?" I asked.

"Unless it isn't in the past," he said.

"You're an idiot," I said.

"Or maybe I'm right and that's what's put you in such a bad mood," he said.

"Do you honestly think that I would still like you after you blew me off?" I asked.

"It's like you humans say, if you eliminate the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be true," Hiei said. "But I don't find it all that improbable."

888

"You look absolutely exhausted Kairi Son."

I was washing my hands in the bathroom when Chizuru walked in, water bottle in hand.

I was exhausted. I'd been running my conversation with Hiei through my head most of the night, and when I was stressing myself out over that, the thought of the world ending was also bothering me. It was like Sensui all over again.

"I'll be fine," I said to Chizuru dismissively.

"What's been keeping you up?" she asked, rinsing her water bottle out.

_Armageddon._

"Up late with Ichigo?" she asked pointing to my neck.

"What?" I asked cupping my hand over the spot on my neck where my hickey had been. Chizuru laughed and moved my hand away.

"I was talking about your necklace. I didn't even see your little love bite until you pointed it out," she said. "Obviously you were busy last night."

"Not that busy," I said.

"Your hickey says other wise," Chizuru said. "But I like your necklace. Why'd he give it to you?"

". . . Just because," I said.

"Jeez, it's so weird to hear you talk about Ichigo like that. He's always so serious and he can be kind of an ass sometimes," Chizuru said. "But you're all like 'he gave me this necklace just because and he's perfect.'"

I chuckled. "Whatever."

Chizuru glanced down the sinks to two girls who were looking down at us and whispering.

"Can we help you with something?" I asked.

The girls stopped whispering and walked out of the bathroom.

"You'd think people would find more interesting things to talk about than you and Ichigo," Chizuru said.

"People talk about us?" I asked.

"All the time. I mean, you have a reputation for being a horrible human being and a moron, whereas Ichigo is neither horrible nor a moron," Chizuru said. "Plus Ichigo's adorable and bitches be jealous. That and lots of people hate you."

"Thanks for the explanation," I said.

We walked out of the bathroom and bumped right into Orihime, Yukina, and Ichigo.

"I know you're a giant, Ichigo, but try to keep from stepping on us little people," Chizuru said.

". . . I'm assuming you were in the bathroom with Chizuru for some perfectly innocent reason," Ichigo said.

"Nope. Chizuru's my secret lover," I said putting my arm around her.

". . . Secret lover?" Yukina asked.

"Awe, you don't know what a secret lover is, Yukina?" Chizuru asked. Yukina shook her head. "How cute! What else don't you know?"

Yukina pondered for a moment. "Oh, last night Ichigo sent Kairi a text message asking her to come over and watch a movie, but our friend Yusuke took her phone and looked at it and said that it was a booty call and they wouldn't tell me what it meant."

Chizuru laughed. "I love her. She's like a Martian." I shook my head. "Anyway, judging by the little love bite on Kairi's neck, I think your friend was right."

"Chizuru," I started to protest. She wagged her finger at me.

"Kairi and Ichigo have been very naughty," she went on. "Come on, Yukina, I'm going to corrupt you lots today."

"Just keep your hands to yourself," I warned her. Chizuru winked before skipping off with Yukina.

"Remind me to tell Yukina that even if we're not talking about anything to do with Spirit World she probably shouldn't repeat anything my friends say back to anyone," I said.

"Don't worry I will," Ichigo said. "I wonder how long it's going to take Chizuru to go running her mouth off to everyone."

"The whole class probably knows already," Orihime said.

"You're right," I said.

"You notice how weird everyone is being today," Orihime said. "Apparently a bunch of. New students just enrolled."

"Tch. And they're probably in our class. We always get the new kids," Ichigo said.

"I'm sorry you find me and Yukina to be such inconveniences," I said. "You still like me, right, Orihime?"

"You bet," She replied.

We got to the classroom and Ichigo pulled the door open. He stood staring into the classroom for a moment before closing the door and walking away.

"Nope," he said.

"What?" Orihime asked.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I'm going to take the Nope Train to Fuck-Itville," he said as he walked out of earshot.

"Do you think I've had a bad influence on him, vocabulary wise?" I asked.

"You could stand to swear a little less," Orihime said honestly.

"I thought you might say that," I said. We pulled the classroom door open and could tell immediately why Ichigo had left.

Our new classmates were Renji, Rukia, Toshiro, and Rangiku.

I sighed. This was going to be a long day.

888

"We got Soifon, Yumichika, Ikkaku and Yachiru," Yusuke whined. It was math class and I was hiding in the bathroom in a stall to discuss things with Yusuke.

"Sounds fun," I said.

"I'll say. Yachiru keeps calling herself 'the girl Lolita' because she looks seven," Yusuke said.

"Creepy," I said.

"It gets better—Ikkau's been carrying around a wooden sword and keeps screaming at anyone who questions him about it. Yumichika totally went to town on Mister Iwamoto and used some pretty fancy words to tell him he was ugly and Soifon. . . Well she's hot but also unpleasant and loud and mean and does not like to be complimented on her boobs apparently," Yusuke said.

"For future reference most girls don't like that," I said.

"Basically, this is the worst undercover operation I've seen in my life. We could do a better job than this."

The bathroom door opened and I shushed Yusuke so I could remain hidden as two girls walked into the bathroom.

"Did you see those new kids in class 2A?"

"How could you miss them? Honestly, that class is so full of weirdos now. Ever since they let Kairi Son in they really have just let anyone in here."

"I like that Yukina girl but I don't know how Kairi is related to Shuichi."

"I wanna know how on Earth she ended up dating Ichigo Kurosaki. He should totally know better."

"I heard from Chizuru that she's totally got a giant hickey on her neck."

"A giant hickey?" Yusuke asked.

I covered the mouth piece on my phone to keep Yusuke from

"That's so gross."

"I bet it's not even from Ichigo. I heard from one of my friends at Sariyaski that she used to hook up with Urameshi. I bet she still does."

I resisted the urge to vomit as the girls walked out the bathroom.

"Yusuke, can I ask you question," I said.

"What?"

"People actually _know_ you're dating Keiko, right?" I asked.

"No one believe us," Yusuke said. "But yeah. I'm pretty obvious about it."

"So where on Earth would any at Sariyaski get the idea that we used to hook up?" I asked.

"Oh, everyone thinks that Kairi," Yusuke said.

"What?!"

"Yeah. That's why no one believes me about Keiko and why everyone thought that you wouldn't go out with Trunks," he said.

"And you never told me?" I asked.

"It wasn't important. It was stupid. I mean the whole idea of it makes me want to puke because let's face it Kairi, that's as close to incest as you can get without it actually being incest, but they're all idiots at this stupid school," Yusuke said.

I sighed. "I guess you're right. I'll just let it go."

"Good," Yusuke said. "Uh oh, there's a lot of shouting outside. . . I think Ikkaku might be beating someone with the sword. I'd better go intervene. Or help."

"Use good judgment," I said. I hung up the phone and walked out the stall and back into the hallway. Instead of going to class, I walked up to the roof. The Soul Reapers had been right. There was absolutely no Spiritual activity going on in the city. It felt eerily normal, which was enough to set me on edge.

"Shouldn't you be in class?"

I looked back to see that Rukia had joined me.

"I don't want to be in class right now. I want to know what's going on," I said.

"We all do," she said.

"And I know something bad is coming," I said. "Everyone knows that factually something bad is coming, but I can feel it."

"Is it because you can see the future?" Rukia asked. "Did you see something?"

"No, I didn't seen anything, but I usually don't. Usually I just get a feeling. A bad feeling. And sometimes the feeling is worse," I said. "Still, I don't think I can stay here."

"Where are you going to go?" Rukia asked.

"To see my grandfather. I know he knows something, he's just not saying," I said.

". . . Can I ask you something, seriously," Rukia said. I nodded. "You said your grandfather has the same precognitive abilities as you, correct?"

"Yep," I said.

"And from what I've been told you always predict everything with one hundred percent accuracy," Rukia said. I nodded. "If his precognitive abilities work the same way as yours, if he has seen something what would you even be able to do?"

"You mean because I can't change what I see?" I asked. She nodded. "I'm going to try anyway, like I always do. I always have to try."

Rukia gave me a nod as I stretched upward.

"Maybe I should go back to class. Things aren't dire enough at the moment to risk incurring my mother's anger for skipping school." My mother was pretty unsympathetic about the whole saving the world deal when it interfered with education. My grandfather would be there after school got out. I could wait a few hours.

"Additionally, I doubt Ichigo would appreciate me bailing on him," I said. Though I felt he deserved it after putting that hickey on my neck to be honest.

". . . Are you happy with Ichigo?" she asked.

I looked over at her. "Of course I am."

"If you don't mind me asking, why did you decide to go out with Ichigo?"

I paused as I thought this over. "I didn't plan on it initially. When I found out he was interested I was mostly opposed to the idea. He's such a sweet guy. I didn't want to ruin him with terribleness. But I went out with him and I really, really liked how sweet he was. I know that I can be awful sometimes. And when I was dating Trunks I was a terrible girlfriend. But Ichigo is just makes me want to be better. He makes me feel like I can be better. Sometimes, most of the time, I feel like I don't deserve him. But he doesn't care that I have issues. He just. . . He likes me flaws and all."

Rukia smiled at me. "I'm glad to hear that. You deserve to be happy and so does Ichigo."

"Thanks," I said. "I hope I make him happy anyway. He says I do, but I'm still used to people just being annoyed by me."

"You'd know if he didn't like you. He lets the rest of us know with no trouble," Rukia said.

I chuckled. "You're probably me of his best friends, Rukia. Otherwise he would never put up with you turning his closet into a bunny sanctuary. And he only ever says good things about you even if he pretends to be irritated when you're with him. Maybe he does find you irritating, but he'd miss you if you weren't around to bother him."

Rukia smiled at me. "You know him very well."

I shrugged. "There's always more to learn about people, especially the one's you cave about."

888

I went back to Kurama's house to change my clothes after school before going to visit Capsule Corp. to interrogate my formerly dead grandfather. After I was properly dressed in my usual out of school orange and blue ensemble, Hiei knocked on my door.

"Yes?" I asked as he peeked inside. I was still annoyed with him. His insinuation that I still had feelings for him was out of line, and even worse it was bothering me.

"You have a visitor," he said flatly. Clearly he was just as thrilled about my existence as I was about his.

"Who?" I asked. But Hiei had already dosed the door. Maybe he was more fed up with me than I thought.

I walked downstairs to the living room and was surprised to find Bardock there with Kurama and Hiei.

"You were expecting me?" Bardock asked.

"How'd you know?" I asked him.

He chuckled. "Clearly that Gohan is the brains of this family, eh? What happened to the rest of you?"

I frowned. "I can only predict when bad things are going to happen so I just assumed the same was true for you."

"I see a lot of things, kid. And ain't none of it ever led to any good," he replied. "So what did you want? To ask me what I saw? Is that what?"

"Yes," I said.

"You already know how this works, Kairi. It's not going to make any difference if you have details." My grandfather was turning out to be a stubborn jackass.

"At least we would know what were up against," Kurama pointed out.

"So you want to know what it is you're not going to be able to stop, is that it?" he asked.

"We have to try. It's what we do after all. Like Kuwabara says 'destiny breaking's our specialty.' Besides, my dad, your son, taught me not to give up. I'm betting you didn't once you found out Frieza was going to blowup Vegeta did you?" I pointed out.

"So how long have you been trying to stop your little predictions from happening? From the beginning? And how has that worked out for you so far, destiny breaker?" he asked. Not only was he an ass, he was a cynic too. That was just what I needed. "Listen, Kairi, do you know what the definition of insanity is?"

"Enlighten me, please," I said.

"It's doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Sounds familiar?" he asked. I scoffed.

"If you think you're the first person to call me insane, you're sadly mistaken. And you won't be the last because if it means trying to save my friends and family and this planet, I'd say it's worth it," I said. "So, I think it's about time you started talking."

Bardock stared at me for a long moment. "That feeling, you know the one. Where you know something bad is coming but you don't know what? I bet that's what you're feeling right now. And you're right. Something is coming and you can't stop it. And a few hours from now almost everyone in this room is gonna be having a damn miserable day. That's what I saw. So start making your peace with that."

A damn miserable day could mean anything, but I had a tendency to only predict worst case scenarios. I could only assume I was about to deal with a worst case scenario type problem.

"That still doesn't tell us what you saw," Hiei interjected.

"And telling you isn't going to help you any," Bardock replied. "Truthfully, I don't know who or what's causing your problems, I only know you're about to have some."

"You're so unhelpful," I said.

"Trust me. It wouldn't make a difference if you knew. It might just be worse when it finally does happen. That's the worst thing about it, isn't it? Knowing and not being able to do anything about it. That's why it's a curse," Bardock said. "I'll be around, to help clean up the mess for you, kid. There's nothing else I can do for you." I continued to glare at him as he rose to his feet. "Better get going before the party starts. You should prepare yourself. All of you." He started making his way to the front door He paused and turned around tome. "By, the way, Kairi, feel free to prove me wrong."

"Gladly," I said as he opened the door and walked out.

"My, he seems pleasant," Hiei said. I rolled my eyes.

"He's no worse than you, Team Cynic. You should start a club together. I bet you'll get along great." I plopped down on the couch next to Hiei and let out a sigh. "What's worse is that he's right. Knowing is worse. And I already feel something bad coming. Knowing sucks, but I'm anxious not knowing and I don't know what's wrong with me."

"You're insane, Detective. That's what's wrong with you. We just had this discussion," Hiei said.

"Stop being a jackass," I said. "Can't you say anything nice? Or useful? Or helpful? Or constructive?"

"Can't you stop arguing with each other? It's all you've done since he got back," Kurama said.

"It's only because he's an asshole," I said crossing my arms.

"He's always an asshole. Deal with it, Kairi. Hiei, stop bating her," Kurama said. He walked to the kitchen.

I looked over to Hiei and frowned. "You upset me so."

"Likewise," he said. "What are you expecting?"

"Hellfire to rain from the sky," I said. "That's not too farfetched."

"Not for you," he said.

"I'm glad you agree," I said. I sighed. "I wish my life weren't so stressful."

"Very wishful thinking," Hiei said.

"I know," I said. "Sorry, I'm being so unpleasant lately. Mostly to you. I don't know why. I'm being worse to you than I was before. I mean, back when I first met you. The last time I was being awful to you. Like actively mean to you simply because you existed. Maybe it's because, you know, like that saying: hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

"And you're a woman scorned?" he asked. I cocked an eyebrow at him.

"What would you call it?" I asked. "You did everything short of 'hit it and quit it'."

"What does that even mean?" Hiei asked.

"Come on. That has to translate into something for you demons. There have to be some ladies in Demon World who are into long term type relationships. You follow me now?" I asked.

"Sure," he said. "But I haven't met any."

I chuckled. "You must have scorned a lot of women, Hiei. I can't be the first notch in your proverbial bedpost."

"Could you tell?" he asked. I rolled my eyes.

"Hiei, wielder of the Dragon of the Darkness Flame and lady killer. Good to know," I said. "You just keep finding ways to make me feel good about myself."

"I recall you felt good about it at the time," he said. "In more ways than one."

"It must be wonderful to be so confident in your sexual prowess. What if I was faking?" I asked.

"Let's be realistic, Detective," Hiei said. Then he scoffed. "Faking."

"I might've been," I said.

"That's the most unconvincing lie I've ever heard. Better luck next time," he teased.

I frowned at him. "You could give me a little credit."

"I give myself too much to even consider that," he said.

"Wow, Hiei, how did I ever let you get away?" I asked, rolling my eyes at him once more. "You know, Ichigo-."

"I don't care," Hiei interrupted me. "You keep talking about him and I thought the decent thing to do would be to tell you that I do not care at all about anything you have to say about him."

"Blunt," I said. "You still haven't told me why you don't like him, since you're not jealous or anything."

"I don't have to have a reason," he said.

I laid my head back on the couch. "I will get an answer out of you. Later though. After we avert another apocalypse. Do you have any idea what time what time it is?"

"Just after four," Hiei said.

That sent up a little red flag for me. "Hey, cousin of mine," I called out.

"Yes?" he asked leaning out from the kitchen.

"Shouldn't Yusuke and Kuwabara be here by now?" I asked.

Kurama looked down to his watch. "Hmm, you're right. You should call them. Make sure everything's okay."

Just as I reached for my phone the front door opened and a rather amused looking Yusuke walked in.

"There you are. We were starting to worry," Kurama said.

"Kuwabara got into it with Ikkaku. I was trying to break it up—definitely not instigating, when Kuwabara ripped his pants. I hadn't laughed so hard in a long time. Ikkaku had tears in his eyes. It was a beautiful moment. But anyway, Kuwabara said he's not coming which is really too bad because I still have Spongebob jokes to make."

"How exciting," I said.

"Anyway, that's why I'm late. I would've been even later because Keiko wanted me to walk her all the way to your school to see Yukina at kendo practice, but once that altercation broke out she decided to just go herself," Yusuke explained. "But after I finished laughing at Kuwabara I called her and told her that the world's ending and that she shouldn't be walking anywhere by herself—but she was already there by then so she just told me to shut up and hung up one me."

"Sounds like Keiko," I said.

"And you, Kairi, where's your boyfriend?" Yusuke asked.

"Here in West City," I said. "When the bubble pops they think it'll pop here."


	12. Had I Known How to Save a Life

_[A/N: What up, ya'll! Unfortunately, I can't stay that I'm back from hiatus. I'm trying to get everything in order for when I finally start school at the end of the month and I have been working insane hours at my job which has left me wiped with not much time to do anything other than sleep. But my hours have let up at work a little and I had some exciting stuff happen today, so despite still not having a surplus of back logged chapters, I decided to pop my head in and say hello with this chapter! Don't forget to review and enjoy!]_

_**Chapter Twelve: Had I Known How to Save a Life**_

I was worried. As time passed, I grew more and more anxious, especially since Yukina and Keiko hadn't arrived yet. Thirty minutes later, and the others were starting to worry too.

"Keiko's not answering her phone," Yusuke dialing her number again. "What the hell is going on?"

"Kuwabara isn't answering either," Kurama said putting his phone into his pocket.

"I don't like this," I said.

"I'll walk to the school and make sure the girls are okay," Kurama said. "I'm sure they're fine."

"I'm not," I said as Kurama went over to the door.

"I know and that's why I'm going," he said. 'I'll be in touch. See if you can get a hold of Kuwabara and find out if things are strange on his end."

Kurama walked out of the door and I let out a sigh. "I don't like this one bit."

"Neither do I. I knew I shouldn't have let Keiko walk there all by herself," Yusuke said.

"Nothing we can do about it now," Hiei said.

I tried calling Kuwabara—no answer.

Then I tried calling Goten—again, no answer.

Even Ichigo failed to answer his phone.

This was getting to be very worrisome.

Ten minutes passed and we figured Kurama should have been at the school by now and my stomach turned into knots when his phone went straight to voicemail.

"He said he'd be in touch," I said as Yusuke tried calling Keiko again. "So why is his phone off?"

"I don't know but something's definitely up," Yusuke said. "Keiko's just went to voicemail too."

Then my phone rang. I answered it quickly, thankful for contact with anyone at this point.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Kairi," Keiko said in a whisper.

"Keiko! Why haven't you been answering your phone?" I asked. "Where the hell are you?"

"We're at your school," she said, still whispering. "Yukina forgot something in her locker so we turned back really fast to get it, but. . ."

Keiko stopped talking.

"Keiko?" I asked.

"We're not alone," she said in a whisper.

My throat went dry and my heart started pounding in my chest.

"What do you mean you're not alone?" I asked.

"Yukina said she sensed something inside of the school with us. More than one of something," Keiko said. "So we hid in this storage closet and we can hear them moving out in the hall every once in a while."

"Did you see what they look like?" I asked.

"No," Keiko said. "But Yukina said there's something outside of the school, much more powerful than whatever's in here with us," Keiko said.

"Kurama should be there and we're on our way right now," I said. I knew something was wrong.

"They're coming again," I heard Yukina say.

There was a loud banging on the door.

"Keiko what's happening?" I asked.

"They're trying to get inside," she said.

"Just stay put we're coming. Don't-."

Before I could get my sentence out both of the girls let out a scream and then there was silence.

"Keiko. . . Keiko answer me!"

"It's Kurama!" she said. I let out a sigh of relief.

"Kurama's there," I said to the boys.

"Kairi," Kurama said taking the phone, "were you able to reach anyone?"

"No. No one," I said.

"I suspected as much. There are Saibamen crawling all over the school," he said.

"What?" I asked. "How is that even possible?"

"I don't know, but it's imperative that you get here immediately. I'm not going to be able to get these two out on my own. I get the feeling there's a much more powerful force at work here," Kurama said.

"We're on our way," I said hanging up the phone.

"What's going on?" Hiei asked.

"The school is crawling with Saibamen," I said. "They're these tiny monsters Vegeta and Nappa were growing to attack everybody when they first got to Earth. They're not very powerful, but they can blow up and there's a lot of them so it could be problematic. Kurama can't get them out on his own."

"Guys, I think you'd better see this," Yusuke said pointing to the TV. We looked over to the TV and on the screen saw that Sariyaski High School had been leveled almost completely.

"What's going on?" I asked. "Do you think these attacks are targeted?"

"Definitely," Yusuke said. "Question is who are they looking for? We left school forever ago."

"Probably just covering all their bases," Hiei said.

". . . That means they'll have gone to Capsule Corp. too," I said. "Which is why Goten isn't answering. You don't think-."

"I think we need to handle this one problem at a time," Yusuke said. "Whatever's going on on the other side of town, they're all with your family so they're fine, but right now Keiko, Yukina and Kurama are alone."

888

It didn't take long for us to get to Karakura High, but when arrived it was evident that something bad had taken place there. I could hear the fire alarms going off inside the school and there was barely a window that hadn't been blown out.

"Where do you think they are?" Yusuke asked.

"They came to get something from Yukina's locker so they probably hid somewhere up on the second floor," I said.

Inside the school it was a war zone. The Saibamen had clearly been hard at work terrorizing the school. The lockers had been ripped from the walls, the light fixtures were dangling, and the ground was littered with chunks of concrete and glass.

I ran up the stairs to the second floor and stopped dead in my tracks. This was definitely where they were hidden. I could see where Kurama's rose whip had ripped out chunks of the ceiling and the locker. It was all over the place.

"We'll check this end," Yusuke said pointing down the hall. I nodded and went the other way alone. I had that horribly sick feeling in my stomach again and I knew that something awful was coming our way. As I passed up my own locker, which had been ripped open and its contents strewn about the floor, I heard shuffling from behind a pile debris where I knew there was a janitor's closet.

"Keiko?" I called out.

"We're in here!" I heard her call back, her voice muffled by the door and the concrete.

"I found them!" I shouted down to the boys and I quickly moved the debris out of the way to get them. I quickly pulled the door open and saw that Keiko and Yukina were alone inside. Both of them looked injured, but it was apparent as Keiko held her in her arms that Yukina was in a bad way.

"What happened?" I asked going to their side.

"After you hung up a bunch of those things attacked us and we had to leave the other closet," Keiko explained, tears in her eyes. "We were running and they blew out part of the wall. It hit all three of us, but Yukina took the brunt of the impact. By the time we got her down here they had blocked off the other end of the hallway and they were all coming at us. Kurama shoved us in here and I went to pull him inside with us but they all started jumping on him and grabbing him and he pushed the door closed and he never came back."

Keiko started crying again.

Hiei and Yusuke finally joined us.

"What happened?" Yusuke asked.

"Kurama's missing, and from what she just told me he's probably hurt," I said.

Yukina started to stir, letting out a groan as she sat up.

"Yukina, you're awake," Keiko said. "The others are here."

She looked around at all of us and then down to her feet.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"My arm hurts," she said pointing to her left one. I moved to her other side and examined her arm. Nothing appeared to be broken despite a few gashes here or there from the explosion. I gently placed my hand on her back and she winced, and rightly so because her shoulder was clearly not where it was supposed to be.

I looked at Hiei and Yusuke.

"Your shoulder's dislocated," I said.

Yukina chuckled. "Could be worse, I guess."

"I can fix it, but-."

"But it'll hurt a lot, right?" she asked. "I'll be fine."

Then I sensed it—a group of small power levels headed toward us.

"Saibamen," I said.

"Hurry and get her up," Hiei said drawing his sword.

Keiko took hold of Yukina's hand in an attempt to comfort her as I took her other arm.

"You ready?" I asked. She nodded and squeezed her eyes shut. It took me two or three tries, but Yukina didn't make a noise or even a whimper as I put her shoulder into place. When she opened her eyes she looked slightly pale and tired, obviously drained from the experience, but she was a trooped. I took off my cloth belt and made a makeshift sling for her arm. It would have to do for now.

We got her to her feet and walked out of the closet.

"Now we've gotta find Kurama and get him out of here," I said.

"I can't sense his Spirit Energy anywhere," Yusuke said. "Where's that stupid Kuwabara when you need him?"

"Guys," Keiko said pointing down the hall.

We looked to see several saibamen headed our way.

"Kurama got taken down by a couple of these? They're not even that strong," Yusuke said.

"But, Yusuke they blow up," Yukina said pointing to her crippled arm.

"Oh, right," Yusuke said. "You guys go find Kurama. I'll handle these guys."

"Be careful," Keiko said.

"Careful's my middle name," Yusuke said charging up his spirit energy.

I took Keiko's hand and started to pull her down the hallway. Yusuke unleashed his shotgun just as we reached the stairs. There was a layer of dust covering everything in the stairway was covered in a layer of dust, which worked out to our advantage because we could see exactly where Kurama had gone. However, there was something else that was obvious too.

In addition to the trail of foot prints he left going down the stairs, there was a considerable amount of blood leaving a trail as well. I let go of Keiko's hand and started down the stairs alone following the trail.

"Kurama!" I called out. I could see his hand prints smeared on the railing, where he was clearly struggling to hold himself up.

"Kurama!" I called out again.

I reached the bottom of the stairs and he was leaning against the wall, catching his breath.

"Geez, don't you know how to answer?" I asked walking up to him. "What happened?"

"Too many Saibamen," he said. "I thought that'd be obvious. Is Yukina okay?"

"She's fine. So is Keiko," I said ushering him to sit down. "They're with Hiei. We can't get out the other way. There's a bunch of Saibamen that way."

"I assume that's Yusuke up there getting rid of them," Kurama chuckled.

"Stop laughing or you're going to bleed to death you moron," I said, not wasting another moment trying to heal him.

"You shouldn't waste your energy trying to heal me here," Kurama said.

"Two of my friends are here and they're usually defenseless in these kinds of situations, but they're both also hurt, and you cannot be hurt and defenseless right now," I said. "There's something else out there."

"Well, on a more serious note, if you're wondering why I'm going to bleed to death I had to get this door closed off which meant that I had to use myself as bait to get a few Saibamen to sacrifice their lives," Kurama said.

"So we're stuck here then." Hiei was coming down the stairs with Yukina and Keiko.

"Looks that way," I said.

"They're going to get through this door eventually," Kurama said. "They're been trying since I closed it off. And if they can't get through the door they're going to make a new door which they also seem to be very efficient at."

"So what do we do?" Keiko asked.

There was an explosion at the top of the stairs and Yusuke came tumbling down.

"Are you okay?" Keiko exclaimed.

"Yeah. Those little fuckers just keep multiplying. And they're fast," Yusuke said. "At least they're stuck up there now. Can we get out this way?"

"Afraid not," Kurama said. "It seems we're trapped for the moment. Anyone have a plan?"

"Well we either wait them out or blow the door back open and try to blow them all up," I said.

"Neither of those is going to work," Hiei said.

"No shit they're not because they're gonna break through one of the doors if we try to wait them out and it's too dangerous for us to try and blast our way out," I said.

"Guys calm down. I'm sure you've been in worse situations than this," Keiko said.

We all collectively took a deep breath and looked around to each other.

"Okay, any ideas, again?" Kurama asked, getting to his feet.

"We could shift some of those rocks around, see how many of them are out there. There'll be more coming, but if we at least get the first chunk we might have a chance to fight our way out," Yusuke said.

"And what about these two?" Hiei asked.

"I can shield them with my force field. It'll slow us down, but they'll be safe," I said. "How much energy have you got, Kurama?"

"I'll be able to help a bit if necessary," Kurama said.

"Good. Yusuke, you can take point on this then. Hiei can take up the back. Kurama stays with me," I said. I turned to Keiko and Yukina, "And you two stay with me."

"You planning on taking the first of them out?" Hiei asked.

"Yeah," I said. Climbed to the top of the rubble pile in front of the door and started pulling rocks aside until I could see into the hallway. ". . . Guys."

"How many?" Yusuke asked.

"None," I said hopping down. "It's completely deserted."

"But I can still sense them around," Yukina said.

"Me too," I said.

"We should still go with our original plan," Yusuke said.

"I'm going to unblock the door. Everyone back up," I said.

The others gathered behind me as I charged an energy blast in my hand. A second later I'd reopened the doorway, sending a majority of the debris into the hallway. It was, as I'd observed, empty.

I started forward.

"Kairi, be careful," Kurama warned. I nodded, as I walked forward into the empty hallway. It was a disaster area, like the rest of the school, but it wasn't swarming with Saibamen. Something didn't feel right. Red flags started going up in my head. Slowly my head turned up.

"Crap baskets," I said. There they were.

One jumped down onto my shoulder and promptly exploded followed by another on my back. My ears started ringing. Then I got knocked to the ground, not by a saibaman, but by a very firm hand on my back. I slid a few feet down the hallway. Behind me I could hear screaming. I rolled over in time to see a bright flash of light as a dozen Saibamen exploded.

There was nothing left where they had been. I could see through to the stairway. Yukina's hand covered her mouth in horror. Keiko was shielding herself behind Yusuke who, like Hiei had looks of shock on their faces. I didn't see Kurama.

Slowly the hand on my back pushing me to the ground and the looks on my friends' faces started to make sense and I froze. I could feel blood running down my arm and my back. The pain was starting to set in. I had to get up. I had to move. I knew I couldn't sit there. I was going to either bleed to death or get killed by the next wave of Saibamen that were sure to come. But I couldn't move.

"Can you get up?" I looked up and saw Hiei standing over me. "Detective."

"Kurama. . . He. . . He's dead," I said.

Hiei nodded. "Yeah, he is."

". . . I was afraid you might say that," I said.

"We've got to keep moving," Hiei said. He held his hand out to me and helped me to my feet. "Are you okay?"

"No," I said. "Kurama's dead."

"Dammit," I heard Yusuke as he punched a locker behind us. I turned and looked back at him. "What the hell is going on here?"

"I'd like to know that myself," I said. "I don't think we're going to get any answers in here."

We started down to the hall to the front entrance of the school. And that's when I sensed it. A huge wave of ki headed straight for us from outside.

"Get down!" I shouted.

We all dropped to the ground as the ball of energy impacted the side of the school, spraying us with glass and cement.

"Was that one of those plant things?" Yusuke asked.

"No. That was way too powerful," I said. "We've got to get out of here and get somewhere safe."

"But where?" Keiko asked.

"Kisuke's shop isn't far from here," Yukina said.

"Good idea," I said. I was willing to bet that if anyone was going to be able to know what was going on and be able to help us it was a retired Soul Reaper captain. "We'll head for the gym and go out the back way."

We made a run through the school, thankfully avoiding any attacks as we went. When we got to the gym door, I pushed it open slowly and peaked outside.

"Do you sense anything?" Yusuke asked.

I shook my head. "No, but be careful. If there are still Saibamen around we won't sense them until it's too late."

We cautiously stepped outside and stayed close to the wall of the school as we developed a plan.

"Keiko, Yukina, stay with Hiei and no matter what happens keep running until you get to Kisuke," Yusuke said. "Whatever attacked the school has got to know we're out here by now, so Kairi and I will stop it if we can."

"But what if you don't come back?" Keiko asked. I understood her concern. Kurama, the most resilient member of our team, barring Kuwabara, was dead. Yusuke and I had a bad track record when it came to avoiding death.

"Don't worry," Yusuke started.

He never got to finish his sentence. A beam of purple energy flew past my head, just barely missing me. I watched as it instead went straight through Keiko's chest. Her mouth went to form some unknown word or sound that never came. She dropped down to her knees and her body slumped over, lifeless.

Yusuke instantly dropped to his knees beside her. Her eyes were still open, but they were blank and lifeless.

"Oops. My aim is off. I was aiming for the monkey."

We looked up to the sky and floating there, staring down at us was a creature with a long tail, completely white except for patches of purple on his chest, his shins, his shoulder, his forearms, and the top of his head. And in the center of his abdomen there was a hole. He was one of the hybrids.

"Who the hell are you?" Yusuke asked, getting to his feet, completely enraged, as he should've been.

"Frieza. . . You're Frieza aren't you?" I asked.

"Congratulations. You're already proving to be more intelligent than that father of yours," he said.

"But you said that Frieza guy was dead," Yusuke said.

"He was," I said. "Trunks killed him—the future version I mean."

"Yes. Vegeta's little brat may have gotten the better of me, but this time I think it is I who will have the upper hand. And what a joy it'll be to kill that filthy monkey's daughter," Frieza said.

"The hell you are," Yusuke said preparing to fire off a Spirit Gun.

"Wait," I said. "He's one of those hybrids. We're not gonna be able to stop him without-."

"One of your Shinigami friends, yes," Frieza said. "And at the moment I think they're all a bit occupied, if not dead already."

I had to stall. The six of us weren't going to go missing without someone getting concerned, especially since Karakura High School was in shambles. There were too many Soul Reapers here for them to abandon us.

"What are you doing here? Why are you here?" I asked.

"For the first time in my life it seems I'm taking orders from someone else and my orders to kill everyone, especially you," he said.

"Us? Why?" Yusuke asked.

"Not just you. Anyone that may be viewed as a threat," Frieza said. "Our reasoning is under need to know basis."

"Who do you work for?" I asked.

"Confidential. So you can make this easy or we can do this the hard way," Frieza said.

"You can kiss my ass. I don't care if I have to wait for some stupid Soul Reaper to get here to put you away, I'm going to pound the shit out of you until they get here and put you out of your misery," Yusuke said.

A giant crack appeared in the sky and it opened up into a black void.

"Oh, darn. Looks like I only get two of you for now," Frieza said. "Don't worry. I'll be back. You can foolishly pretend to be able to defeat me—and then I'll put you out of your misery."

Frieza retreated into the black void of the sky and it sealed itself up. Everything was silent now. It was all starting to sink in. Keiko was dead. Kurama was dead. No telling who else had been injured or killed in West City.

Yuuke dropped back down next to Keiko. "It isn't fair. . ."


	13. Will I Wake Tomorrow From This Nightmare

_[A/N: Hiatus is over! I stopped working at my life consuming job, but went back to school full-time, however my schedule is excellent and leaves lots of time for me to have a life (which will mostly involve me reading books and writing fanfic). Anywho, sorry this chapter is so short. I'll make it up for it next chapter! Also, I'm posting a new chapter in Eizou Hakusho so be sure to go check that out as well!]_

_**Chapter Thirteen: Will I Wake Tomorrow From This Nightmare**_

When we finally got to Kisuke's we were pleased to see that we weren't the only ones there—as we could be seen carrying Keiko's body with us.

Trunks was outside when we showed up outside. He'd clearly been through some sort of ordeal similar to us.

"Shit. . ." he said upon seeing Keiko.

"Shit indeed," I said.

"What happened?" Trunks asked.

"Fucking Saibamen and Frieza's a hybrid and I want to know what the fuck is going on," I said.

"Goten and I got cornered by a bunch of hybrids. Almost didn't make it out until Soifon and Yoruichi showed up," Trunks said. "Goten's pretty banged up, but Orihime's in there with him now. You look like you could use some help too."

"I'm fine," I said.

Bulma stepped outside, obviously looking for her son. She let out a deep sigh and reached into her pocket.

"I was hoping we wouldn't need these," she said. She held a DynoCaps in her hand. I already knew what it was before she expanded them.

A coffin popped up on the ground. I watched silently as Keiko was placed inside of it.

"Where's Kurama?" Trunks asked. I looked up and stared at him for a moment.

"He didn't make it," Hiei said.

"Are my parents here?" I asked changing the subject. I don't want him to ask how or to ask if I was okay. I needed to move past it for the moment, because I still had something very difficult to do.

"Goku went to round everyone up with Byakuya, but your mom is here. So is Kurama's," he said.

I walked inside, wandering around for a while before I found my mother in a sitting room with Videl, Pan, Bulla, and Vegeta.

"Kairi, thank goodness you're here," Mom said getting to her feet and pulling me into a hug. "Look what's happened to you. Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," I said. "Where's Shiori?"

"She's in the restroom. What's wrong?" Mom asked.

"It's Kurama. . ." I trailed off. None of this was going to be easy. This was my mom's only nephew after all.

But my mom had been in this game long enough to understand what was going on. She pulled me back into a hug.

"Don't worry. I'll tell her," she said. I could hear her voice straining as the words came out. I didn't fully understand how my dad was able to do this all the time. He'd become a professional at giving out bad news. Now I was giving in and my mom was going to have to do it.

"Did Gohan come back yet?" I asked.

"No. He must still be at the Lookout. Though I'm betting he's on his way back because he's probably heard what's happened by now," Videl said.

"And your father should be back with the others soon," Mom said. "Do me a favor and go check on your little brother."

Mom pointed down the hall and I did as she instructed, following the corridor until I found Goten sitting with Orihime, pulling his shirt back on.

"Hey," I said.

"Glad you're finally here. We got back and they said that Karakura High School was a mess. We were afraid you might've gotten hurt," Goten said. "And we were right."

"I'll be fine. But Yukina-."

"I'm not going to pass out from blood loss any time soon," Yukina said walking into the room. "Hiei said not to let you leave the room until Orihime helped you."

"No problem," Orihime said pulling me to sit down next to her. "Is everything else okay?"

"Yeah. You look like you're about to tell me something I don't want to hear," Goten said.

I nodded. ". . . Keiko and Kurama. . . They're both dead."

Orihime let out a gasp as her hands flew up over her mouth. Goten just stared at me like he didn't even believe what I said.

"But. . . How?" Goten asked.

"Frieza. And Saibamen," I said.

"But that's. . . Not possible," Goten said.

"A lot of impossible shit has been happening recently if you haven't noticed," I said. "I just want to get to the bottom of it and stop it."

888

Byakuya and my dad hadn't returned yet. They were supposed to be coming back with Renji, Ichigo, Chad, Uryu, Kuwabara, Shizuru and Rukia. Everyone else was present and accounted for. Bulma had managed to get in touch with everyone back at Kame House, along with Tien and alert them to the situation. After I told everyone about Frieza and about what he'd told us, it was decided that once my dad got back here, the safest place we could probably get to was the Lookout. If Frieza was running around there was no telling who else was going to pop up.

Bardock had been unnervingly quiet since we'd arrived. It was obvious now that he knew Kurama and Keiko were going to die at the hands of Frieza. There was no telling what else he knew.

In the meantime, after Orihime finished healing me, I was sitting outside on the small stoop outside of the door, drawing circles in the dirt. One of Kisuke's assistants, a small girl called Ururu had stopped outside once to give me something to drink, but that was the most contact I'd had with anyone since I'd come outside. Yusuke was inside, crying. Yukina was crying. My mom and Shiori were crying. And I was the only one who wasn't. As per usual. Mostly, I didn't want to upset my mother who was obviously already in an emotionally unstable way. She didn't really need to see how upset I was.

The door behind me slid open and Hiei came to sit next to me.

"Sulking alone again?" he asked.

"That's what I do best," I said. "How are Yukina and Yusuke?"

"Yukina is fine. Urameshi is pretending to be fine," he replied.

"I don't blame him. He was in love with Keiko, you know? She was the only girl really strong enough to handle him I think. And she made him better. She always gave him a reason to give 110%," I said. "They've always been like that, since we were little kids. She always wanted us to be better. Go to class and be nicer to people and start actually caring about what were going to do beyond high school. It's too bad you didn't know her better."

"I knew her well enough," Hiei said.

"Have you ever even had a conversation with Keiko?" I asked.

"One or two," he replied.

"When was this? No, never mind that, what on Earth could you two _possibly_ have had to talk about?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it," he said.

"Now I'm very curious. Not only did you talk but you're keeping it a secret," I said. "But I guess there's a lot I talked to Keiko about that I wouldn't tell anyone else. Not even Yusuke."

"Like what?" Hiei asked.

". . . I told her about you. After you left. She's the only one I told, but she tells Yusuke everything which is how he knows, which is why it's shocking that Kurama and Kuwabara don't know, though I'm incredibly thankful for that," I said. ". . . Kurama would've strangled you if he knew."

"It's not like we-."

"I know, but Kurama was like an older brother to me. He didn't really want me fooling around with anyone. Especially you," I said. "He used to like that I liked you, because he trusted you and stuff. But after you left you kind of fell out of his favor. Like, he'd still trust you with his life, just not with me. If he knew what happened that night he'd be very upset. More than very upset. He'd probably punch you."

"I'm sure he'd get over it," Hiei said.

"You only think that because, number one, you don't understand that you were Kurama's best friend. Even if you didn't consider him a friend he trusted you more than anybody. And number two, you're underestimating how upset I was when you never came back," I said.

". . . How upset were you?" he asked.

"Why do you care?" I asked.

"Curiosity," he said.

I rolled my eyes. "Pretty upset. I didn't even want to go out with Ichigo. As angry as I was at you, I still liked you. . . I missed you. I missed you a lot actually."

"You obviously got over it," he said.

"I think that the reason I was so angry when you showed back up was because I still missed you. And it's funny, because even though you're back I still feel like I miss you sometimes," I said.

"That makes no sense," he said.

"I think I missed you the way that I miss everyone when they're gone. And now that you're here, I think I just miss how I used to feel about you," I said.

"Unless you still feel that way about me and you're confusing the two," he said.

"Even if that was the case, Hiei, you say never liked me. And even though I know that's not true, I'm with Ichigo now and I like not feeling like I'm wasting my time on someone," I said. "Kurama liked Ichigo better than you anyway. Because he knew Ichigo would never just leave like you."

I rested my head on Hiei's shoulder, starting to feel the weight of my cousin's death hitting me.

"I think the thing I liked most about you was that no matter how much you disappear or leave, you always show up when I really need you. . . I'll probably always like that about you," I said. "I think that's why Kurama trusted you so much. Because you're dependable."

I sat there quietly with my head on Hiei's shoulder for a few moments, when I recalled an odd memory of Kurama. I sat up.

"Oh, my Kai," I said.

"What?" Hiei asked.

"When I was like seven, Kurama was over our house once, visiting and I was arguing with Goten and Goten kept telling me that I looked like a donkey and I was like 'well at least if I'm a donkey everyone wants to ride me' and Kurama started laughing and I never understood why until just now," I said burying my face in my hands.

"You can have any revelation about your cousin you want right now and you pick _that_ one?" Hiei asked.

"But think about it. Kurama was actually old as balls. Imagine having to hang out with seven-year-old me all the time," I said.

"I bet he wasn't thrilled with 15-year-old you," he said.

"Fuck you, I am a delight," I said.

"Sometimes you are," he said.

"Psh. You're just saying that to be nice," I said.

"Yes, because I'm so in the habit of catering to your emotional needs," he said.

"You are actually," I said.

"Well, that'll have to stop," he said.

"Just don't stop right now, okay," I said resting my head back on his shoulder. "I really don't want to sit out here by myself anymore."

Hiei let out a defeated sigh. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Thank you," I said.

He started to run his fingers through my hair again and I let out a sigh.

"Do you think things are going to work out okay?" I asked.

"You're the fortune teller, not me," he said.

"Well if I predict anything then it's bound to turn out bad," I said. "That's what happened with Keiko and Kurama and I didn't even really see anything. I just felt it."

"It's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault," he said.

"I just hate feeling like there's nothing I can do," I said. "No matter how hard I try, when I know something bad is going to happen, it never works out well."

"They might, in the long run," Hiei said.

He twisted my hair through his fingers until we heard the ground in front of us shift. We looked up to see my dad had finally arrived with the others. I sat up from Hiei's shoulder and got to my feet.

"What happened? We've been waiting for you guys forever," I said.

"Your school got attacked by Cell. It wasn't really an easy situation to get out of," Ichigo said.

"I wish I was surprised to hear that, but, Dad, you won't believe who we found creeping Karakura Town," I said. "Frieza. And he wasn't just back from the dead. He was a hybrid, like those others hollows that Captain Hitsugaya and I ran into."

"Are you guys all right?" Dad asked.

I looked over to Hiei who was looking down at his feet. I looked over to Kuwabara.

"What happened?" he asked, stepping over to me. "Kairi tell me."

". . . Yukina was at the school with Keiko and Kurama when Frieza attacked. She got hurt but. . . Keiko and Kurama didn't make it," I said.

"You mean they. . . They're. . ."

I nodded. "Yeah. Kurama got ganged up on by a bunch of these little Saibamen. Keiko got it right through the chest by Frieza." I wiped a few stray tears from my eyes. "I'm guessing no one here is going to be able to tell us why two of our best friends are dead."

"We haven't gotten any more information from the Soul Society since yesterday," Rukia said.

"And Gohan hasn't come back from the Lookout?" Dad asked. I shook my head. "Well it looks like we're going to have to go there anyway."


	14. Let's Get Down to Business

_[A/N: I was literally so busy writing the future chapters that I almost forgot to update, but lucky for you I did not! This chapter was a wee bit longer originally, but, due to some story changes, I had to cut a couple hundred words. Don't forget to review!]_

_**Chapter Fourteen: Let's Get Down to Business**_

"We're so high up," Yukina said, peering over the edge of the Lookout. "You can't even see the ground."

"Where are we exactly?" Hiei asked.

"You know Korin Tower?" I asked. "We're above it."

"That impossible," Yusuke said.

"Yeah, I heard planes can't even fly that high," Kuwabara said. "You have to climb it and only the most powerful martial artists can-."

"Your dad climbed Korin Tower didn't he?" Yusuke asked flatly.

"Yeah, when he was 12 or something," I said.

"Your dad not only makes me feel inadequate, but he's also a total freak sometimes," Yusuke said.

"Climbing Korin Tower you find strange, but the teleporting over a dozen people here you're totally able to cope with?" I asked.

". . . Good point," he said.

"Kairi."

I looked over and saw Gohan approaching me.

"I was about to leave before Dende told me what was happening," he said. "I'm sorry about Keiko and Shuichi. Are you guys okay?"

"We'll be fine once we know whose ass we need to kick," Yusuke said.

"Please tell me you know something," I said.

"We don't have a who, but we may have a where thanks to Dende," Gohan said.

We quickly sought out Dende who was with Mr. Popo and Piccolo as usual, already with the Soul Reapers.

"Starting the party without me?" I asked.

"Never," Dende said. "I'm glad to see you're all right."

"Thanks. Now I hope you have some useful information for us," I said.

"We still couldn't say who's behind this, but there's only one place they could be hiding out that would allow them to travel between the Living World, the Spirit World, and the Soul Society," Dende said. "The Dangai Precipice World."

"What's that?" Kuwabara asked.

"It's the space between the Soul Society and the Human World separated from time and space," Byakuya explained. "It would be an ideal place to hide. Would be."

"Except for the Kototsu," Rukia said.

"That train thing, right?" Ichigo asked.

"The Kototsu rolls through the Dangai every seven days to clear it out. It will destroy anything in its path so no one can linger there," Byakuya said.

"What about that other place? The uh, the Pseudo Space," Yusuke said.

"I considered it but that only opens sporadically or when someone like Sensui opens a tunnel," Dende said.

"But I'm guessing the Dangai opens up every time a hollow comes through," I said.

"Which makes it easy to access Hueco Mundo and the Living World," Toshiro said. "That still leaves the issue of the Kototsu."

"But even if they are in that place, if it only connects the Living World, Hueco Mundo, and the Soul Society then how have they managed to get to Spirit World?" Goten asked. "That's where Frieza and all those guys were."

"The Spirit World would be easily accessible through the Living World," Hiei said.

"Yeah, how else would we be able to go back and yell at Koenma so frequently," I said.

"So it's safe to assume that whoever is behind this originates from the Living World or Spirit World," Uryu said.

"Hmm. . . I'm having a thought," Dad said.

"A dangerous past time," Vegeta said.

Dad shushed him. "What if, and just hear me out, what if they actually came from the Bongo Recipe World."

"Dangai Precipice, kid," Bardock corrected.

"It's not possible. The Dangai is empty. It is essentially a big space filled with nothing," Byakuya said.

"Right. It's just a big ol' place filled with nothing. You call that place the Bongo. What if someone else not from the Soul Society called it something else?" Dad asked.

"What are you getting at, Kakarot?" Vegeta asked.

"What if someone else knows it as the Dead Zone?" Dad asked.

". . . Are you seriously suggesting that Garlic Junior is behind this, Goku?" Piccolo asked.

"But it makes sense. He'd have motive to kill everyone, and he'd have the means to. And if he was able to get out of the Dead Zone once, he could do it again," Dad said.

There was silence.

"Kakarot's got a point," Vegeta said quietly.

"I noticed," Gohan said.

"Who is this Garlic Junior?" Toshiro asked.

"A nothing really," Gohan said. "Tried to take over the world a few times until he got knocked into the Dead Zone."

"But how would he get out? If my memory serves me correctly you told me that you blew up the Makyo Star which is how he got out in the first place. So he doesn't have the power to get out again," I said.

"Good point," Gohan said.

"Sounds like your friend Garlic Junior could create a Garganta. That's how the Hollows move between Hueco Mundo and anywhere. If he had a problem getting sucked into all of the time, it's probably because his was unstable. But after seeing a Hollow do it, someone with that kind of ability wouldn't have a hard time figuring out how to tweak it," Kisuke said.

"But Garlic Junior was a little nothing. How could he cause all this trouble?" Gohan asked.

"He obviously has the means to get to all the souls he's taken, but how remains a mystery," Toshiro said.

"But why did he need to get rid of all of those souls in the first place?" Kuwabara asked.

"Our intelligence shows that based on the level of activity taking place, it's likely that all the souls are still in existence, but likely being kept somewhere where their influence here is minimal," Nemu said.

"So the souls still exist, he's just holding them somewhere else," Ichigo said.

"Correct," Nemu said.

"Could he be keeping them in the Dangai?" Yusuke asked.

"Their influence would be felt here if they were there," Rukia said.

"More than likely he's found something that's made him capable of capturing souls and holding them," Soifon said.

A red flag went up in my head. Something about what Soifon had said made my brain start going at a million miles a minute. I looked around the group as they continued to theorize with each other as if something was going to make me remember. Then my eyes landed on Hiei. Why, I do not know, but that was when the penny dropped. I started jumping up and down, the thought still forming in my head as I realized something obvious.

"Calm down," Ichigo said, putting his hands on my shoulder.

"I know how he's collecting all the souls!" I said. I turned to Yusuke and Hiei. "Remember our first case together Yusuke? Hiei?"

"Maze Castle?" Hiei asked.

"No. Not as a team. Where we met you Hiei? The whole reason you went to look for Kurama in the first place!" I said.

I watched as Hiei and Yusuke had the same epiphany as well.

"The Orb of Baast," they said in unison.

"What's the Orb of Baast?" Uryu asked.

"It's one of Spirit World's three Artifacts of Darkness. The Shadow Sword, the Forlorn Hope, and the Orb of Baast. The Shadow Sword turns anything it cuts into a low class demon. The Forlorn Hope grants any wish you want at a full moon as long as you give your life in exchange and the Orb of Baast collects and holds souls," I said. "The Orb is especially capable of taking the souls of children, but I bet if you put it in a room full of dead souls it would be able to swallow up a whole mess of them."

"Looks like we've almost got this thing figured out," Ichigo said.

But then I had another thought. "The only way that they could get the Orb is if they were in Spirit World. And the artifacts are under serious lockdown after Hiei and Kurama stole them."

"So? What does that mean?" Ichigo asked.

"It means that Spirit World has likely been aware of the situation at hand for much longer than we have," Hiei said.

_"Bingo."_

As soon as I heard the voice I was looking around to see where the source was. A moment later, my favorite blue haired grim reaper came zooming onto the Lookout, hopping off her oar before dematerializing it.

"Holy crap, Botan," Yusuke said. "It's about time Spirit World pulled their heads out their asses."

"I'm afraid they haven't. Not completely anyway. I was sent to help assist the Soul Society anyway that I could. They're 'not aware if you and Kairi are involved'," Botan said. "But I'm glad to see you're all safe. Things in Spirit World aren't particularly good."

"I'll bet they're not," I said.

"The Artifacts of Darkness have been missing since at least two days after you quit," Botan said.

"That's a really long time to go without telling someone. Hiei and Kurama took them they acted like it was the end of the world," Yusuke said.

"Well now it is the end of the world, I'm afraid," Botan said. "They sent out people to hunt the artifacts down, but hadn't been able to locate them. Once they realized that the balance was beginning to be disturbed, rather than request your assistance again they left it to the Soul Society to handle it being that they were taking the brunt of the damage."

"I wanna punch King Yemma in the nose," Dad said, a slight flicker of irritation in his voice.

"In addition to the Orb being stolen, shortly after souls from Hell vanished as well," Botan said.

"Like Frieza and Cell," I said.

"Yes, and many others, but mostly we found concern with Dr. Gero also vanishing," Botan said.

"He must be the one who's re-engineer your hybrids to turn Frieza and Cell into one of them," Vegeta said.

"We suspect this also," Botan said. "Additionally, we know with absolute certainty where they're hiding."

"Not the Dangai?" Soifon asked.

"We believe that they probably originated from the Dangai, but as a side of effect of their relentless collection of souls, a few hours ago, we discovered that the Valley of Screams has started to reemerge," Botan said.

"All right, what the hell is that?" Yusuke asked.

"The Valley of Screams is a naturally occurring phenomenon. It's a dimension that exist between the Soul Society, Spirit World, and the World of the Living," Rukia began. Tessai stood next to her, crouched down so as not to tower over her. In his hand he held up a drawing detailing Rukia's explanation.

"Why do your drawings still suck so bad?" Ichigo asked.

Rukia took her sword and whacked him upside the head.

"What the heck was that for?" Ichigo scolded her.

"Because you're a jerk and your attitude sucks," Rukia shouted unapologetically.

"It's not my fault you draw like five-year-old," he retorted, equally unapologetic, causing Rukia to whack him again. "Will you cut that out?!"

"Maybe if you weren't so rude she wouldn't accost you," Botan said.

"Rude? I was just saying that it looks like something my kid sisters would draw," he said.

"And how isn't that rude?" Rukia asked.

"It's the truth," he said.

Another whack.

"Stop!" he yelled at her.

"Maybe you should just stop talking," I said putting a finger to his lips. "That way at least she'll stop hitting you."

"Thank you, Kairi," Botan said. "And I think your artwork is lovely, Rukia."

"Thanks," she said. "Anyway, the Valley of Screams occurs naturally. It happens when souls get lost on their way to the Soul Society and even the Spirit World. The Souls manifest in the Valley of Screams as Blanks and the memories merge together into a single object, the Shinenju, and it returns to the Living World."

"The Valley of Screams didn't pop up on our radar until a few hours ago, so we're lucky we caught it at all. And if they're hiding there, it's quite likely that they've used the Orb of Baast to round up any Blanks that would alert us to the location of the Shinenju," Botan said.

"Why is finding the Shinenju so important? It's just a bunch of memories right?" Goten asked.

"If that Shinenju falls into the wrong hands it could be used to draw the Soul Society, the Spirit World, and the Human World together through the Valley of Screams," Kisuke said. "As you can imagine, this would destroy absolutely everything much, much faster than this imbalance is going to."

"It's never easy," Yusuke said. "Just once I want it to be easy."

"Wishful thinking," Hiei said.

"So what do we do now? How do we stop them?" Orihime asked.

"We go to the Valley of Screams and we kick this Garlic Junior Guy's ass," Yusuke said.

"It won't work like that," Gohan said. "Garlic Junior doesn't work alone and we already saw that he's got a whole mess of flunkies ranging from Saibamen to Cell."

"So we kick their asses too. What's the hold up?" Yusuke asked.

"That's always your plan—running half-cocked and then what happens? You get your ass kicked or worse, Dimwit," Genkai put in.

"Well what the hell do you want us to do?" Yusuke asked.

"Excuse me." We all looked back and saw Yukina standing at the back of the crowd. "That Shinenju thing, I think I know where to look for it."

"Did you see it?" Rukia asked.

"No, but," she paused as she walked forward. She took hold of Rukia's picture book and flipped back through a few pages. She came to page with one of the Blank souls on it—it was large clad only in white with a pink pin shaped head in it. "I've seen these before."

"When?" Rukia asked.

"Only one or two of just this past week or so," Yukina said. "When I was walking to and from school."

"Why didn't you say anything?" I asked.

"You said that there's a lot weird stuff that happens in Karakura Town and that I should try to ignore it, so I did," Yukina said.

"Good work, Detective," Hiei said.

"Shut up, Hiei," I said.

"I think it's obvious what needs to be done now. Back to Karakura Town to make sure the Shinenju doesn't fall into the hands of the bad guys," Genkai said. "And you Soul Reapers need to find a way to get to this Valley of Screams."

"And the last thing we're gonna need are the Dragon Balls," Bulma said walking over and tossing a radar to my dad. "So we can clean up this mess after you stop this Garlic Junior creep and get back all the innocent people that were killed today."

"It's been a while since any of us have looked for Dragon Balls," I said.

"And you're not going to break that streak today," Genkai said.

"Aww, why not?" I asked. "I want to have a fantastical adventure amongst all the shit—I mean crap—bad stuff."

"Because you and all of your new friends are going to go back to Karakura Town and find that Shinenju," Kisuke said.

"I'm not sure it's such a good idea considering two of their friends have already been murdered and they're at the top of the bad guys wanted list," Bulma said. "They should all be staying put right here."

"I would agree with you except that the last time the last time the Valley of Screams popped up the Shinenju popped up right into the hands of a certain Substitute Soul Reaper," Kisuke said.

"I barely even remember that," Ichigo said. "You said the Shinenju was just a vessel that was made up with memories, so once all the memories returned to the Blanks we all forgot what the Shinenju was because technically it didn't even exist."

"That's incredibly unhelpful," Yusuke said.

"Yes, but if anyone's good at getting lucky where bad luck's involved I'd peg you and your partner," Genkai said. "And good things go in groups of three so lucky you, Kairi, you get to go on a field trip with your boyfriend and take two of your half-Saiyan brethren."

"This is still a very bad idea. What if they get attacked again?" Bulma said.

"We send them in with babysitters," Genkai said. "Isn't that your favorite job, Hiei?"

Hiei rolled his eyes.

"And the rest of you'd better skip over to the Soul Society and find out what the hell is going on the other side," Genkai said.

"Renji, Rukia, go with them to Karakura Town," Byakuya said.

"You too Rangiku," Toshiro said.

"Yes, Captain," Rangiku said.

"And Goku, as our expert Dragon Ball finder I'm sure you'll be able to manage," Genkai said.

"Goku,


End file.
